Fat White Family - Forgiveness is Yours [CLEAR]

26.4.24 - INDIES CLEAR VINYL LP + POSTER

Fat White Family are back with the most sophisticated, vital and flamboyant creation of their career.

The cult south London band's resplendent fourth album, Forgiveness is Yours, like everything they've done, has pushed them to the limits not only of their creative talent, but of their health, their sanity, their very existence.

Starting with the T S Eliot influenced The Archivist, the album moves from the Pentangling of John Lennon to the growling swaggering synths of Polygamy is Only for the Chief, taking in spoken word (the harrowing Today You Become a Man) and even shades of Robert Palmer in the insistent 1980s pop of Work.

Lyrically, literary influences abound, the aforementioned T S Eliot, poet Zaffar Kunial and transgressive philosopher Georges Bataille amongst others.

Working with the forever ebbing and flowing line up of players and collaborators, brothers Lias and Nathan Saoudi are the core songwriters, with turns taken with long term band members Alex White and Adam Harmer and fellow travellers Jessica Winter and the esteemed Clive Langer.

Taking artistic cues from the Fluxus movement and especially Yoko Ono's work visually, the album art is an exercise in minimalism, using a piece from Anna McDowell, embossed and pale grey, to draw you in.