As a writer there’s a very easy way to approach Bang, the debut album from Scottish singer Iona Zajac. This would be in focusing mainly on her work as part of The Pogues’ touring party, an assignment that found her as one of a number of replacements for the legendary Shane MacGowan.
The departed MacGowan’s legacy is a storied one, but Zajac – who spent her early career as a member of the Glaswegian blues group Avocet – has much more to say now than please and thank you for the opportunity.
Bang is an exploration of her imagination’s darkest corners – Chicken Supermarket originated in concept as a dream involving Billy Connolly – but it’s red meat is sliced bone-deep from experiences such as those which scar Anton, a toxicity framed simply with “Go fuck yourself/Go learn to get consent”. Unlocking the chains to those pasts is difficult, but redemption seems to come in the title track’s declaration of guiltless pleasure seeking, a rare moment in which this record’s abrasive but poetic gravity is relinquished.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 