Julian Cope
Drunken Songs
Head Heritage

Despite his best efforts to alienate record companies and confound fans, former Teardrop Explodes frontman Julian Cope has had a canny knack for a carefree pop melody in every musical project he has approached. Swapping his well-documented love of LSD for the taste of hops, the prolific self-styled “archdrude” turns his attention to the virtues of getting sloshed on his new mini album, Drunken Songs. Featuring “six winter warmers to enliven the dark sunless days”, the album was inspired in typical Cope style when the 59-year-old singer wrote As the Beer Flows over Meto be played at his funeral. Featuring his Mellotron keyboard, the rousing opener Drink Me Under the Table has a 1960s pop catchiness to it, as Cope requests, with typical wit, “under the moonlight love me, and send me home in the back of an ambulance”. Now less bitter and more upbeat, especially on the 18-minute booze-stained closer, On the Road to Tralee, Cope is obviously enjoying knocking back the pints these days.