John Parkes- 'Faithlessnessless' (Aaz) Released 30/01/06

Music as social comment? You´re having a laugh, ain´t you? It´s just something to tap your feet, nod your head to, innit? For those oblivious to the long tradition of protest singers, taking in the likes of Joan Baez along with our very own Billy Bragg, here comes Sheffield-born John Parkes to put the world to rights. And so we have songs about society´s needs for scapegoats, ´To Go Round´ which was originally going to be titled ´There Aren´t Enough Paedophiles To Go Round´ before being cut back to avoid a Brass-Eye-style furore. Then there´s ´Hippy Father´, bemoaning the fact that Blair´s children appear to be just as conservative as Thatcher´s. The most political track on the album, however, wouldn´t you know it, is ´Politics´ which slates, amongst other things, the decline of -isms in the world of political debate.

In the same way as you should never judge a book by its cover, appraising ´Faithlessnessless´ by its title is equally inadvisable. The songs, the cringeworthy John-Shuttleworth-like opener ´Ms Jones´ aside, are as accessible as the album´s moniker is clunky. The haunting ´Cigarette´ will draw the listener in as Parkes compares a dangerous lover to a tab. The imagery overflows like a full ashtray.

A favourite of John Peel, Parkes has played in a range of nearly bands in a 15-year career including Greenhouse, Fuzzbird, and The Sinister Cleaners. ´Faithlessnessless´ is his project, though, and his alone. An acoustic delight, an honest John strums at times so hard that you´re sure the recording process was interrupted by a procession of broken strings. Step forward, the Bard of Barking´s true heir.