The Cleaners From Venus give us the news from July on their new EP.

 By Henry Lipput

"I read the news today" sang John Lennon in "A Day In The Life."

Martin Newell, of the long-time British band The Cleaners From Venus, has been reading the news as well and wants to share it with us on the Cleaners’ latest EP July (Bandcamp). 

Newell, a well-respected iconic/ironic DIY legend, is known as the Jangling Man, a song from his great 1993 album The Greatest Living Englishman as well the title of an in-the-works documentary of his career funded by a Kickstarter campaign.

And he doesn’t disappoint on July fronting The Cleaners From Venus although he may not be fronting as much as being a one-man band. As the Bandcamp page notes, Newell  is both “muse and Word-sick“ and he recorded the tracks at Chez Martin “between tea-breaks and sleeping.“

The lead-off track “Statues” blends the jangle with the rattle of today’s news. The line “A virus brings a planet to its knees” makes it clear where Newell is going and he continues with “protests on the breeze” and statues tumbling. The light-hearted popster is nowhere to be found and the guitar solo is full of crunch. 

The dazzling “Golden Lion Of The Sun,” however, is the sound of classic Newell and would have found a fitting spot on his wonderful The Off White Album, the follow-up to Englishman. “King Inglorious” is the tale of a cad trying to make his case for not being hit in the head with a pan yet again. When he’s told “You are a fraud / Strutting around like a lord” it’s hard not to think how the description might fit any number of politicians. And the instrumental “Tricky Customer, Johnny Tomorrow” is the theme song for the sci-fi television series that has yet to be pitched to a streaming service.

Next time: Willie Nile x 2