John Hassall & The April Rainers [LP]

John Hassall & The April Rainers - John Hassall & The April Rainers [LP]

John Hassall (The Libertines) & The April Rainers release their long overdue second, self-titled album. John Hassall: “It's a London based love story, but it's also about finding the wonder and poetry in everyday life. Having dreams and chasing them gives you hope." The new album was largely recorded at John’s home studio in Aarhus, Denmark where he has been living since 2009. And was produced by the band, with string player Clementine Brown having a big influence on the sound. "These 10 songs are the ones that survived, grew and took on a life of their own. There's no way of telling if a song will make it until the end. That Pale Lantern in my opinion, started off as a rank outsider and then turned into one of the strongest songs on the album. Lessons were learnt from Wheels to Idyll and a new musical development runs through it. Whereas the last album was recorded pretty much live. The new album maintains similar classic songwriting and pop sensibilities, though with more complex arrangements and production.” Most of the songs were cowritten by John and longtime poet collaborator Steev Burgess exploring memories of school days, journeys and adventures, fading dreams, ancient empires and even somebody’s trinket collection. Burgess who has known Hassall for many years, wrote the lyrics to lead single Miracles, a sort of Ballad of John and Line. Libertines band mate Peter Doherty is also involved with a co-writing credit on Doing Time. 1. Miracles 2. Doing Time 3. A 45 to 1967 4. That Pale Lantern 5. Silver Crucifixion 6. Last Lover of the Summer 7. A Land I’ll Never Know 8. Shaded Roman Eyes 9. Winter Term 10. Leaf-lined Song