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Americana, rock, alt-country, London.

The old contradiction that in creating something intensely personal, you can share something inspiringly universal, is at the heart of a remarkable new album by Danny & the Champions of the World.

You Are Not A Stranger Here is the seventh studio entry by the widely-admired London-based collective, in a formidable body of work that dates back to 2007. It's full of brilliantly cohesive performances that come together to reach a new creative peak, founded on the most reflective and deep-seated lyrics to date by frontman Danny George Wilson.

The album, produced by band member Thomas Collison, is the follow-up to 2017's Brilliant Light, since when Wilson's numerous recording guises have yielded two Bennett Wilson Poole albums, a live "Champs" record and the similarly acclaimed 2021 solo set Another Place. "I've not been sitting in the garden," laughs the prolific singer-writer.

But You Are Not A Stranger Here is something else again. It's an intricate and beguiling tapestry of highly-crafted sounds by a band at the top of their game and a songwriter on an honest and unpretentious quest for some truth. If that sounds potentially dark and doom-laden, the results are anything but, on a record that's deeply relatable, infectious and moving.

It's also drawn career-best performances from long running Champs members such as Collison, guitarist Paul Lush, pedal steel player Henry Senior, drummer Steve Brookes and saxophonist 'Free Jazz' Geoff Widdowson, alongside equally fine contributions from Daniel Hawkins on bass and a second saxophone player, Lachlan Wilson, who is Danny's uncle, based in the family's native Australia.

On 'The Robot Cries' in particular, Wilson Sr. evokes the freewheeling spirit of Mel Collins with Dire Straits, Andy Mackay on Roxy Music's Avalon or Raphael Ravenscroft winding his way down to 'Baker Street.' "That space is all there," says Wilson. "The bed is synths, piano, bass, drums, and then Lushy's got all the sky in the world. He's kind of the David Gilmour of the record and Henry is the Robert Fripp."

You Are Not A Stranger Here also has its own subtle concept. "The way the record is laid out is across a day," explains Danny. "You hear the weather report in the morning and then you're immediately into this question of 'I know what I'm doing, but I don't know why I'm doing it anymore.'

"As it goes through the day, you get the commute, the hold message from a call centre and finally ending the day back home with 'Sooner or Later.'" The theme is embellished by some beautifully expressive mood pieces such as 'Kicking Tyres' and deft, inter-song soundscaping by Collison.

Both 'The Robot Cries' and the valedictory 'Sooner or Later' will soon be augmenting the band's stockpile of singalongs. ‘Sooner or Later' is definitely our stab at doing a 'Modern Love,' '80s Bowie thing," notes Danny. "I totally love it. We did a tour in Spain recently and that was our encore, and it went down an absolute storm."

More than a quarter-century since Wilson emerged with his brother Julian at the helm of the much-loved Grand Drive, he acknowledges the step change in his approach to his song craft this time. "I think it's one of those records where you suddenly think, you're not old but you're not a kid anymore, and you wake up and go, 'What's this all about? The songs don't profess to know anything. In fact, they're a lot less self-assured than all of the previous thirty years of songs. I'm looking in the mirror a bit here.”

"As a result, it's a weird mix of looking at yourself and looking at the world. There's nostalgia in there, and there's regret. I'd been reading and talking about lots of things that maybe you don't do so much when you're young. Not the big questions, but you find yourself going 'Sorry, can we just stop and think 'What's the point here?' And I guess the title of the album is reflective of that."

The record is named for a line by the late English essayist and speaker Alan Watts, whose work has also influenced talents as diverse as Van Morrison and Spike Jonze. Wilson, citing Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal, says: "Alan Watts' quote is 'You didn't come into this world. You came out of it like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here,' which I love.

"It's got lots of meanings, and I think the reason why I liked it for the album is that for people who've been listening to us for a long time, this is new terrain lyrically and musically, but it's also saying 'It's ok, there is familiarity. You know this. It sounds different, it's new, but that's the same for us as well.' We're all in the same boat, or space rocket or whatever."

That reference to '(Never Stop Building) That Old Space Rocket,' one of the many jewels in the Champs' songbook – and at every one of their stirring gigs – is a reminder of the special place they have carved out in the Americana heartland and far beyond, on songs like 'Waiting For The Right Time,' 'These Days' and 'Henry The Van.'

You Are Not A Stranger Here grew out of extensive discussions among the Champs, and between Wilson and Collison in particular, about what type of album they wanted to make, and how it needed to reflect Danny's far-reaching set of recent sonic and literary fuel. "I made a playlist that I shared with the band, and I was constantly adding to it," he says, adding with a laugh: "No, I didn't test them. But it wouldn't have taken more than a few songs for them to realise 'OK, the terrain is different here.'

"Tom and I kept talking about big music. There were several threads I was trying to get across. One was this Japanese stuff, especially a box set that Light in the Attic put out, Kankyō Ongaku, of environmental music, composed for specific spaces. Then stuff that reminded me of it, like Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Harold Budd.

"Then German things like Holger Czukay, NEU! and Michael Rother, and the British pop music we were into, like Gabriel's So, Talk Talk, the Blue Nile, Kate Bush, David Sylvian, Bowie, Fripp. People who were pushing the envelope at a time when things were still also mainstream. That's what we decided we were going for, and you just can't rush it. It's chiselled, it's massaged - sculpted, really."

Wilson's reading list also added to the album palette, via the psycho-geography of French philosopher Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space and Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair's Rodinsky's Room. "It’s about this mysterious attic room above a synagogue in the East End of London, unlocked for the first time in eleven years having been left untouched after its occupant disappeared.

"Iain Sinclair has another book called Living With Buildings, about how buildings influence the lives and stories of the people within them and vice versa. I think that's absolutely true. Not ghosts, but the spirit of things. 'I'm in Love' is an acknowledgement that the little trinkets and souvenirs collected throughout our lives gather importance…the little big things."

Ultimately, Wilson reiterates the potential of the album's lyrical sentiment, as he identifies a line from the opening 'Talking A Good Game.' "It talks about me and songwriting and says 'Who am I kidding? I'm just the same as you.' It's asking why you're trying to be universal, why are you looking for something big to say?

"These aren't huge epiphanies," he concludes. "They're little things that you've suddenly realised about yourself, about life and the weirdest thing is that by singing about not trying to be universal, these are possibly the most universal things I've ever written."

Tracks:
01. Talking a Good Game
02. Kicking Tyres
03. Last Exit
04. Every Door You Have Ever Opened
05. I'm in Love
06. Future Past
07. In Search of Koji
08. The Robot Cries
09. The Poetics of Space
10. Sooner or Later

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0tdwnjDTTM