| Kevin Ayers - The Unfairground |
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| Written by Jason Ferguson | |
 Kevin AyersThe Unfairground [Gigantic] Get It at Amazon  In the 15 years since Kevin Ayers’ last studio album (Still Life With Guitar), the prog-pop he pioneered in the late ’60s and early ’70s has undergone something of a renaissance. The first two albums by the Soft Machine and Ayers’ own Joy of A Toy have become touchstones for artists as diverse as Stereolab and The Arcade Fire. Ayers, however, couldn’t care less. Having retired to the south of France, he’s only recorded sporadically over the past three decades, caring little for the vagaries of contemporary music-making. This reluctance makes the existence of The Unfairground remarkable on its own. Even more notable is the cast of characters on-hand to help realize Ayers’ new material: with members of the Ladybug Transistor and Teenage Fanclub to old Soft Machine standbys like Robert Wyatt (who has a solo album of his own recently released, the laudable Comicopera) and Hugh Hopper, Ayers is far from alone on his new endeavor. The results of the group effort make for one of Ayers’ warmest and most effective records since the ’70s. Once again, he combines sprightly melodies (the chorus of “Run Run Run” is very nearly childlike in its joy) with subtly challenging instrumentation and arrangements, and does it with a casual ease that should embarrass anyone who considered his absence a surrender. |
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