The Grand Mal , the latest solo album by Tom Hingley

The 300 only limited edition vinyl LPs  and 300 CDs of Tom Hingley’s latest solo Opus

The Grand Mal is an album gestated during the 2020 Covid Lockdown when the songs were composed.

1 Actors the opening song muses over us being the ‘stars tennis balls’ (John Webster The Duchess of Malfi) how Fate controls us and how we act out the parts in our lives like Shakespearian Players

2 Easy a slow Bossa nova love song with Whicker Man © style Harp lines provided by Schrodinger’s Strings and the pitter patter of Pete Marshall’s (Paul Heaton Band) drums. Gary Hadfield on bass The love song finds Tom in an unusually relaxed and sultry repose.

3 Take it Like a Woman  is an Inspiral-like throwback with grinding Farfisa supplied by Mr Keys Andrew Stewardson (Mock Turtles) Drums Pete Marshall (Paul Heaton Band ) Gary Hadfield Bass.

4 Another Bird on a wire is a Lover’s Complaint of a song, Welleresque in its soul bound reach, Tom’s White Boy soul vocals traverse a slow acoustic guitar descending scale like a dove landing on a breaking heart    Tom acoustic guitar and vocals Kelly Wood piano

5 Harder is a song about your parents not wanting you as a child. It’s based on the idea that it’s  hard to be born again when your parents didn’t want you to be born in the first place. Tom’s Father didn’t want him as a baby, so he had to run away and join the Circus , well a Garage Band really. Slow acoustic melancholy lift to an uplifting Gospel extended chorus as the song unbirths itself.

Keys Andrew Stewardson Bass Gary Hadfield drums Peter Marshall Vocals Tom Hingley acoustic and Electric Guitar

6 How Could I be so Wrong. A song of sorrows, of relationship regrets and the basis for the finding of the need for a post lockdown emotional and relationship reset. With a computer you would merely switch it off and on again , this song aims to do that with the singer’s heart. Nobody ever sounded so penitent while singing the central lines ‘I’m sorry , So Sorry’ and there’s few records outside Al Green’s soul Majesty that attempt that

Piano Kelly Wood ,Keys Andrew Stewardson Bass and programming Gary Hadfield drums Peter Marshall Vocals Tom Hingley acoustic and Electric Guitar

7 My Madness. Four minutes of grinding Electric Guitar bass drums and attitude as Tom spills his breakdown lockdown blues in a free form free writing poem ‘I saw the birds fly south in your mouth’ the song comes from reflects and speaks total madness. Doggerel and bad poetry mingle with distorted guitar , bass and a rock beat to free the mind from insanity.

Gary Hadfield Bass  Peter Marshall Drums Vocals Tom Hingley acoustic and Electric Guitar

8 White Feathers a plaintive song about Tom’s Mother’s passing. White Feathers appear to the close relatives of the deceased as an intimation that their loved ones souls are near. I don’t believe in Spiritualism but I do believe it can affect you if you believe it can.

Tom acoustic guitar and vocals

9. This is My First Rodeo

Joan Crawford’s on screen character played by Faye Dunnaway emoted when asked to play a drunk in a film ‘This is not my first Rodeo’ in Mommy Dearest which is the origin of this phrase so This IS my First Rodeo is as pean to innocence to admitting when some life goal (marriage, lose of virginity, divorce for example )is being experienced in real time for the first time and saying that its important to acknowledge and to let ones own soul know and feel that feeling. The wrap around internet social media age makes younger folk pretend thy have all done all the life changing experiences before because digital social pressure renders it a meta faux pair to admit that one is doing something for the first time.

Sonically the vocals are similar to the worn cynicism of Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True album. A hollow country feel to the song which belies the Innocence/Experience paradigm explored here  

Gary Hadfield Bass and programming Peter Marshall Drums Tom Hingley acoustic guitar electric guitar

10.Open Up is a beautiful Love song , one pure voice and one simple lyrical guitar expounding rekindled love.

Tom acoustic guitar and vocals

11.Turnstyle is a Welleresque melancholic song which closes the Lockdown song structure  

Tom acoustic guitar and vocals

Released on 2.9.2024 the album can be purchased now on Bandcamp from here