THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL - The Dean (feat. Fiona Sangster & Chris Free)

Xmal legend returns, sounding impressively like a creepy secret agent

THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL - The Dean (feat. Fiona Sangster & Chris Free)

released July 2, 2021

So earlier today I gave you some early Xmal shots, which got me to wondering whether any of them are to musical mischief now. I know Anja has her art career, but what of other others. I’d exchanged emails a year or so ago with Fiona but forgot to ask then. And yet … here she is. Or at least I assume it’s her. Nothing is certain!

“…but if her plan works they will both be dead by the end of the summer” is where you start to focus. The busy drum shuffle hustles the song along in a dignified fashion as a tale of marital drift goes from ennui to threat, all to an alternating backdrop of blissful sixties-era Bowie pop (dovetailing scarily with the twee arthouse movie inserts in the video) and a touch of baggy insouciance.

Decidedly cute despite far too much reliance on vocal repetition. The sting could easily have been delivered in the final chorus but nothing actually happens, so the story hangs there, a bit like a posh version of Colourbox.