{"title":"Dan O'Farrell and the Difference Engine","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-fish-that-learned-to-drown","title":"The Fish That Learned to Drown","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eFormed from the ashes of John Peel-endorsed indie-band Accrington Stanley.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eDan O'Farrell and The Difference Engine's fourth album (recorded and produced by Andy Lewis ) arrives at the start of 2026 like a cold, sharp bucket of water in the face.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eBracing and troubling - like a tongue returning to a sore tooth - these songs probe life's dark waters: loss of family, faith, community and self- confidence - but also remains empathetic and rousing, ultimately cathartic. Once you've scraped the bottom, the only way is up. Creation is always an act of joyful defiance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eBased in Southampton, and formed from the ashes of John Peel-endorsed indie-bandAccrington Stanley, the band bring layers of warmth and subtlety to the uncompromisingly lyrical alt-folk songs of Dan O'Farrell, English-teacher by day and angry, leftist complainer by night.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThe songs take a zig-zagging tour of the narrator's struggles with life, 'maturity' and the joys of middle-age. Opener Heartbreak Hostel was 'written for Elvis Presley, but he never got back to us'. In The Colonial Club the personal angst becomes political - a gammon- baiting response to the pearl- clutching horror of the right to the sight of statues of slave-owners being chucked in the sea. Racing through the Dexy's-inspired passionate danger of 'Cyanide Desire' , - why do the things we love always have to kill us? - we land on the spiritual treatise of God Etc. 'I let Jesus take the wheel...he drove me off a cliff'. Like all lapsed cradle-Catholics, O'Farrell experiences the push-pull of his religious upbringing, searching for meaning as he tries to become as 'nakedly human' as possible. Side one ends with the double-whammy of Sunny Weather and Alarm, the first a Groucho Marx-quoting jazz-breeze where the narrator struggles to just chill in the sun - for gods sake!- and the second a pretty, shimmering exploration of how hard it is to communicate with the ones we love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThe album's second half starts with another dose of dark humour: Hang Me On The Wall takes masochistic joy in imagining a series of life- ending scenarios, with co-vocalist Rick Foot getting all the best lines. The album's two 'cornerstone' tracks are positioned carefully on side two. Track 2 ( or 7 on the CD), Loss tries to deal with the grief that hits us all - the howl of pain that emerges at the end of the song probably saying as much as all the preceding lyrics. Track 4 (10), Goodbye, returns to the theme of loneliness and miscommunication - the universal ache - yet the music soars. Sandwiched between these two party-anthems (!) comes the album's poppiest track, Asbestos Love , a slightly demented paean to global- warming. The album's closing tracks - The Fish That Learned To Drown and Ursa Minor - complete the arc, and -finally - offer some hope of struggle and growth, and then redemption and self-acceptance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gare Du Nord","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":56179222774091,"sku":"R4315-9734","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a1041989248_2.jpg?v=1766606634"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/dan-ofarrell-and-the-difference-engine.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}