Reviews for
LOST IN THE CITY
“TOP 3 INDIE RELEASE OF THE YEAR ! A kind of urban fantasia, an immersive theater-of-the-mind love letter to New York City, the Englishman Spottiswoode’s home of many years.”
Jason Warburg, Daily Vault (2018 Best of Year List)
“A Gorgeously Bittersweet Farewell to Manhattan!”
Delarue, New York Music Daily
“Best Of Year List! Number 2:
How about a musical guide on how to cope in New York City? The Big Apple inspired lots of artists to do so, but the city is harsh mistress and many failed to pull it off. Spottiswoode & His Enemies however pass with flying colours with their new album Lost In The City, an amalgam of vaudeville, blues, rock and jazz plus lead singer's Spottiswoode witty way with words. He is a sardonic poet, whose English heritage makes him a perennial outsider in the city that never sleeps.
Like Randy Newman and Ray Davies he is sharp observer, who can cram the contents of a short story within the confines of a song. The little people can become heroes of sorts (Goodbye Jim McBride, Batman & Robin). Autobiographical songs are used as reality checks. Hoboken is just Hoboken, not some mythical and better place on the other side of the Hudson River. And he takes the full blame for relationship going on the rocks in It's On Me and Now Didn't I? Loneliness and getting drunk are captured in The Walk Of Shame: ‘It's 6 o'clock//The night was so delicious//But now a puddle is a mirror for Narcissus’.”
Hans Werksman, Here Comes The Flood
BEST OF YEAR
“Another Spottiswoode album with the old gang. Riley McMahon produces. Same old, same old. So, yes, another spectacular outing. Imagine a lounge act with more electricity than a substation. Spottiswoode is the master of the louche ripper, maintaining a mellow groove while absolutely blistering a song.”
Jon Worley, Aiding & Abetting
“Sometimes feels like the punchline to a joke that begins ‘Leonard Cohen, David Bowie and Frank Sinatra walk into a bar…’ The man and his jaw-droppingly tight seven-piece are simply that sophisticated, that eccentric, that charismatic, time after time after time.”
Jason Warburg, The Daily Vault
“Spottiswoode has never been shy about engaging in some ambitious world building on his sprawling concept albums. On his latest, he unveils his version of NYC and its environs in all its grimy beauty, with a storytelling style that nods to the likes of early Springsteen and Randy Newman. There’s plenty of dark melancholy like on the ironically titled Tears Of Joy and no shortage of humor - take the raunchy Love Saxophone which is about… well, not a saxophone. Spottiswoode’s New York is a place you won’t want to leave once you enter.”
Pete Chianca, Wicked Local (28 Great Albums You May Have Missed)
“Best of 2018!”
Giulia Nuti, Il Popolo Del Blues
“A jewel of an album.”
Moors Magazine
“As he reveals his vision of life in New York City, he succeeds in capturing perfectly the mind-sets of those from the Big Apple of whom he writes with a consummate skill which belies his English heritage. With stories and tales, some seemingly autobiographical, covering the gamut of emotions, with love, loss and guilty acknowledgement of personal failings being addressed with a frank honesty, Spottiswoode's lyrics, often sardonic, and witty, compare favourably with the likes of Harry Chapin and Randy Newman, he is that good.
Musically, his regular six-piece His Enemies are as tight a unit as you could wish to hear; add to this the fact that on some songs the sound is augmented by strings or a beefed-up horn section, and the result is an aural tour-de-force.”
David Pratt, FATEA magazine (British website)
“Totally engaging. A truly gifted group of musicians. TOP PICK!”
BabySue
"Vintage…wry...rich...Old World charm...Lots of different moods and colors. A clever journey."
George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
“Perfection on a grand scale!”
MusicBloggen 67 (Swedish website)
“The ideas literally overflow! Music that surprises amidst the great sea of simplicity in modern pop music… underpinned by great solos from Candace DeBartolo on saxophone and Kevin Cordt on trumpet.”
Musikansich (German website)
“Our absolute favorite track has been saved up to the very end of this album: as far as we are concerned, the soft melancholic ballad I Don’t Regret is allowed to enter music history as an instant classic.”
Rootstime (Belgian website)
“The songs are adorable. The music is something picked up from Tom Waits's musical coat.”
Blaskan (Swedish website)