PAUL BRADY – Unfinished Business (Proper PRPCD144P)

Unfinished BusinessOn September 8th, Paul Brady releases Unfinished Business. It features nine new compositions and two traditional folk songs. The album is Brady’s fifteenth solo album and covers a range of styles – as well as the traditional folk songs there are elements of jazz, country, Brady’s own unique folk style and, I suspect, a potentially massive hit song if he wants it to be. It sounds as though the album shouldn’t work because of the range of styles, but it does; Brady has the pedigree (a career spanning five decades and the plaudits of international folk and rock stars) and the sheer class that you can play this album many times over and hear something new each time.

The video below is of the title track, a beautifully smooth late-night-piano song which opens the album and then moves easily into the up-tempo ‘I Love You But You Love Him’, two songs which reflect on the discordance of love, the first reflective, the second wryly humorous, both of them songs of experience: “the time I said goodbye to the one who really was the one…it’s some old unfinished business from a long forgotten time” from the first and “I love Chicago blues, you love your hip-hop” one of many images of difference from the second.

‘Something to Change’ and ‘Say You Don’t Mean’ continue with the Brady and his band in up-tempo mood before slowing down a little for ‘Oceans of Time’. I’ve played the album a dozen times and this still strikes me as a potential major hit. ‘Harvest Time’ is quieter, but gives me another song in my collection with harvest in the title which I suspect will have similar longevity to the Neil Young tracks.

Brady recorded the definitive versions of ‘Arthur McBride’ and ‘The Lakes of Pontchartrain’ in the late 70’s. The two traditional songs on Unfinished Business are ‘The Cocks Are Crowing’ and the final track, ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender’, both of them having that under-stated perfection that comes from Brady’s mixture of technical competence and ability to inhabit the song.

Between these two songs are three more where Brady and the band continue the up-tempo style on ‘I Like How You Think’, ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ and ‘Once in a Life Time’. On an album where I could pick any of the eleven tracks as a favourite, ‘Once in a Life Time’ is the track I’ve played most – a lyric to cheer the darkest of days “Sometimes once in a life time makes up for all mistakes….real love waits its moment, real love won’t play games…..you wonder why the bells aren’t ringing/don’t you know real love’s got a whole lot of blues’’ and a chorus you can’t help but join in with.

This is Brady’s first new album for seven years and well worth the wait. It’s the album of a mature artist and songwriter – and his band – who can cover multiple genres but keep the album as a coherent whole. “Being classy isn’t a choice, it’s a lifestyle” – Anon (or so Google tells me).

Mike Wistow

Artist’s website: http://www.paulbrady.com

‘Unfinished Business’ live (not the album version):


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