Review by Jason Barnard
Over his 4 decade journey through goth-rock-pop, Paul Roland has carved a cult following with acclaimed tracks like ‘The Great Edwardian Air-Raid’, ‘Wyndham Hill’ and ‘Nosferatu’. His 17th long player ‘Bitter and Twisted’ presents a compelling case to add more classics to his canon.
Kicking off with insistent plastic surgery rocker ‘I’m The Result Of An Experiment (Which Went Hideously Wrong)’, this bumper album darts and twists in a number of musical directions with a horror filled lyrical theme.
Other highlights include ‘Hugo’, a devilishly great pop song tied a tale of a ventriloquist possessed by his murderous dummy; ‘Another Me’ then embarks in a darker proggier direction. ‘I’ve Been Hearing Voices’ is in turn gorgeous acid folk, with a lighter sound-scape of the genre presented in ‘Professor Feather’. ‘Born In The 60s’ is fitting tribute to garage rock and the west coast psych scene. With a further five bonus tracks tied to ‘Bitter and Twisted’ Paul shows that after all these years his songwriting talent is undimmed.
