Rich(ard) Dawson returns with news of his latest record End of the Middle. While Dawson is no stranger to big musical ideas, be it opening his 2022 album The Ruby Cord with a world-building 41-minute track or writing epic songs from the perspective of a seed in collaboration with the Finnish experimental rock band Circle, here Dawson dials everything down. “Everything is held back and soft.” By stripping things to a bare bones essence, what is revealed is a remarkably poised, oddly elegant and beautiful collection of songs - unquestionably some of Dawson’s finest work to date.
The title of the new album End of the Middle is a suitably slippery contradiction, one that invites multiple interpretations: Middle-aging? Middle-class? The middle-point of Dawson's career? The centre of a record? Centrism in general? Polarisation? The possibility of having a balanced discussion about anything? Stuck in the middle with you? Middle England? Decide for yourself on February 14th 2025.
Also shared today is new single, “Polytunnel”, it warmly depicts a gardener engaged in the noble, calming, mysterious business of raising vegetables whilst dealing with illness. Despite its pretty, almost breezy folk-pop-esque sound, it appears to hide a deeper darkness. “I think I know what’s happening in the song, but hopefully that’ll be different for each person listening,” Dawson says. “I like that the line ‘Out the gate and down the lane’ - it could mean going down the allotment, or it could mean going somewhere else. Tunnel is obviously a very loaded word. There’s possibly a lot of drama happening outside of the lines of the song…. Or not. It might just be a song about an allotment.”
