You wouldn’t know it from listening to The Unfairground, but Kevin Ayers is considered a pioneer of both psychedelic and progressive music (he counts Eno, Oldfield and Syd Barrett as peers). The Unfairground, however, sounds more like a slightly off-kilter Richard Hawley, singing baroque pop that’s rough around the edges. “Brainstorm” melds breezy strings with a fair amount of feedback, and the title track recalls Lou Reed’s“ Dirty Blvd.” if it were written for a carnival. The best moment bar none is “Cold Shoulder” – it is no coincidence that it plays first when you pull up his MySpace page – which would have fit right in with the songs from Hawley’s album Lady’s Bridge. Extremely ambitious stuff, to be sure, but man, could it have used a larger recording budget. Ork pop should never be given the lo-fi treatment. Still, for a 63-year-old making his first album in 15 years, The Unfairground more than holds its own. (Gigantic Music)
