Mick Head and his Red Elastic Band are back with the first new song since their 2022 album Dear Scott. The new song, Ciao Ciao Bambino, doesn't stray far from the Mick Head template but it is everything that makes him great in a three minute nutshell. Produced by Bill Ryder- Jones it sounds like Love transplanted from West Coast USA in 1967 to Liverpool in 2023, a perfect blend of fuzz bass, trumpets, gently strummed acoustic guitars and Mick's voice of experience singing lines of hard won wisdom- 'I used to do the gee gees/ But they done me/ I had to ditch tequila/ She set me free'. It's the sort of song you can't imagine hasn't existed before last week, it sounds like it's been around forever.
If you don't know Mick Head and The Red Elastic Band's two recent albums, Dear Scott from last year and 2017'w Adios Senor Pussycat then you're in for a treat playing them for the first time. If you do know them, re- listening and rediscovering is a treat too.
Adios Amigo is from Adios Senor Pussycat, a jangle of guitars and sweeping strings to close the album, with Mick singing adieu, 'Goodbye Saint Domingo/ Farewell Letitia Street/ It's adios amigo/ Gonna have to set you free/ Still got no time for money/ And money's got no time for me/ It's adios amigo, Gonna have to set you free...'
On 2022's Dear Scott Mick found himself on the crest of a wave, the album featuring at the top end of many end of year lists. In the middle of side two was The Ten, a lush, gorgeous, melodic gem, a lyrical tour through Liverpool, and ending with some very evocative strings, the fade out to an imaginary film from the 60s about a young couple running away from everything, reaching the beach and finding there's nowhere left to go.
Good to have him back again with a new song and perhaps a new record next year. Hope many people will explore him and his excellent music.
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