Ginger Wildheart - 'The Pessimist’s Companion' - Album Review

After the news about The Wildhearts disbanding recently, the good news is that there is Ginger album just on the horizon. Well when I say new, it’s actually an expanded version of his 2019 very limited Round Records release ‘The Pessimist’s Companion’ this time on Wicked Cool Records. For those lucky enough to snag one of the originals it’s a pretty rare item now so hence the expansion and re-release. This time instead of the 10 original tracks it’s boosted to a rather satisfying 15 – that’s 50% more Ginger!.

As Ginger says: “Fresh from a break up, a lonely alcoholic living in a caravan poured his feelings into a collection of songs, as dark as they are confessional. The landscape is more eclectic than its predecessor, Ghost In The Tanglewood, but cut from the same tree. The Pessimist’s Companion never got a proper commercial release, due to one thing or another, and was hastily mixed and compiled to meet its pre-order deadline. Rough, urgent and entirely in keeping with the subject matter. This is a deeply personal release for me. I hope you find something here to warm the colder nights alone.”

The Wicked Cool version adds 5 new tracks and a renamed ‘Reverse’ rebirthed in name only as ‘In Reverse’. Interestingly we kick off proceedings with the second track from the original tracklisting the polished Folk edged Pop of ‘Why Aye (Oh You)’ and the wonderful opener ‘May the Restless Find Sleep’ is now placed right at the end of the new release.

This is a record that runs the gamut from the gentle breezy, country-tinged Pop of ‘I Love You so Much I’m Leaving’ and the thoughtful laid back contemplation of a relationship that is ‘In Reverse’ to the light, bright, yet somehow downcast eclecticism of ‘You Will Let Me Down Again’ which contains a little of everything from Dream Academy to 70’s singer songwriter Pop! And that my friends is the genius of this release it comes at you from every conceivable angles and elicits feelings and memories without ever sounding remotely like a pastiche, more like a melting pot that is constantly refreshed.

The first ‘new’ track ‘No Regrets’ has a forlornness to it that feels like tears through a smile, it’s full of punctuating bells against a longing lyrics that gives it real body. It is juxtaposed with another new track ‘Detachment’ which wrings despair into a glass labelled ‘Pop’.

The piano-led ‘A Better Love’ is beautiful love song punctuated with a lilting guitar and an almost mantra-like chorus that could actually make you weep. It’s one of my very favourite tracks Ginger has recorded and from someone who has been there since those first Wildhearts gigs that’s as big a compliment as I can bestow. Set against the title track ‘The Pessimists Companion’ with its more upbeat contemplation of detachment tempered with connection. It sounds like a riff on the isolation we have all been through and lyrically it’s a wonder.

‘Barbed Wire and Roses’ is brimming with atmosphere and quite different and when it bursts into the refrain you fee it might juts catch fire, but that wouldn’t be in-keeping with this rather introspective album, so it’s content to simmer not boil.

The final dozen tracks are split evenly between the old and the new. The first new track ‘I Don’t Wanna Work on This Sogn No More’ (sic) even sports a tongue in cheek title to go with the jangly comedic shuffle! It’s just fun, that’s all, and a nice circuit-breaker. Another new song follows: ‘Wanna Be Yours’ opens with a stanza of comedic lines that just burst out, it’s a sort of anti-cliché love song set against a quirky countrified guitar. Both songs are of course wonderfully out of place!

By complete contrast ‘Sweet Wanderlust’ is lush and shiny country tinged Pop; whilst ‘There is a House’ picks up the Folk threads again and weaves a dark tale. We close out with the quirky ‘Stalemate’ that actually really reminds me of the very first days of the Wildhearts and songs like ‘Nothing Ever Changes’ well at least it transported me there anyway. We close with the opening track from the ‘Round Records’ release ‘May the Restless Find Peace’ a wonderful acoustic number that is almost hymnal in its refrain. It’s perhaps more apt to close than open.

Ginger is one of those artists that never fails to take you with him and is never scared to just open the door and see where it takes him. If you’re a fan you will of course know this. If he’s new to you then I envy the journey you will be going on.

9/10