Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit - 'A Larum' (Vertigo) Released 26/05/08

Young, smart and handsome, a musician as well as a TV actor; Johnny Flynn is one of those ‘good at everything’ guys. He’s been around a while too. In an interview over a year ago, we discussed his newest song ‘The Box’. It was, he said, about based on a pamphlet written by a member of the early green movement, David Thoreau. Based on his experiences of living hand to mouth in a shed just outside New York, it centred on the idea that when you die, you can’t take anything with you, and when you’re alive, stuff just gets stolen or broken, why not just live with what you need?

Flynn was impressive and knowledgeable and engaging, and so is ‘The Box’, the first track on ‘A Larum’. The name A Larum, meanwhile, may or may not be based on the play ‘A Larum for London, or the Siedge of Antwerp' -  a play about a battle in Antwerp in 1956 that is largely considered to be awful. This is speculation, but it would make sense. Flynn has toured with a Shakespearian acting company, appeared on TV and is deeply interested in literature, plays and the like. This comes through forcefully, on the record, with is rammed with words. It will definitely be too wordy for some, and that’s a good thing.

But there’s no point being wordy, unless your words are good ones. In this respect he wins also. “Pray for the people inside your head, for they won’t be there when you’re dead,” he advises on one album highlight, ‘Tickle Me Pink’. On ‘Leftovers’ he charms with: “Leftovers is what I want, don’t need no fine cuisine/Give me a dime for bacon rind, or slip me some of that old sardine.”