Chris T-T – 9 Red Songs (Snowstorm) album review

"Nobody’s got any good red songs anymore/And Billy Bragg’s gone fishing in his 4x4" – so sings Chris T-T on 'Preaching To The Converted', the closing track on this sadly anachronistic but deliciously effective album of very 21st Century protest songs. Sadly anachronistic, because he’s right: he may be the only man left who's brave and passionate enough to highlight effectively the issues behind current headline-grabbing stories. From the blinkered pro-hunt lobbying of the Countryside Alliance – "we'll call them 'The Cunts' for short" – to the flagrant selective reporting of the once-great British press, T-T puts the lyrical boot in with righteous wit and scathing laser-sighted accuracy. Hell, even pious protest singers incur his wrath: "Poverty's bad, war is bad, racism's bad/Well done, have a biscuit." Listen to Chris T-T. He talks sense.

Charlie Ivens

originally appeared in The Fly magazine, November 2005 issue