Always in Trouble

Following a year or two of live performance, John Dog returns with a set of witty, impactful original songs that bring old-fashioned songwriting values to some very contemporary concerns.
 
The elaborate musical settings of “Always in Trouble” will be familiar to Dog lovers, though he really draws from *all* shelves of the spice rack this time - Bacharach, Cohen, Beatles as ever, sure, but there’s some 90s jangle in here, 60s Simone and liberal sprinkles of the Great American Songbook too. Also evident in many of these new songs is the kind of kick in delivery that only comes from songs that were stress-tested in front of an audience.

Dog’s lyrics are as robust as ever, but again, arguably evolved to recognise what impacts a crowd. Are there tight couplets and satisfying rhymes? Sure, and plenty of them, all in service of Dog’s unique perspective, honed - or warped, depending on your point of view - by a previous life in The Big City and a news media job too weird to explain. Love them or hate them, you haven't heard these stories before.
 
For example, look no further than the album’s first single and opening track, “Twitter Must Die”, a frankly unhinged screed slash crowd-pleasing toe-tapper that advances a fringe theory about the platform's popularity. Or “Cyd Charisse”, an impassioned tribute to professional dancers and formally trained musicians from a man who is categorically neither. Or the warmly melodic, frostily worded title track, which may sound harsh and/or preachy to those who don’t listen all the way to the end.
 
As well as six entirely new, previously unrecorded songs, “Always in Trouble” contains remastered versions of all Dog’s singles from the last couple of years, including “Sharp Tongue” and “London Falling”. 
 
“Always in Trouble” is streaming on August 22nd. The expanded version goes on sale on Bandcamp on September 13th. Watch out for the brand new video for “Twitter Must Die” on YouTube.