Album Review 

Andy Blade

Tiny Specks in a Huge Abyss

Munster Records

LP/DL

Release date: 10 Oct 2025.

(4/5)

Seventh solo album from punk survivor Blade exploring his signature offbeat themes: identity & mental health, and 70’s icon Karen Carpenter. Scathing, dark and bizarre songs with catchy tunes. But no closer to the mainstream or compromise notes Ged Babey. And there’s a song about Palestine.

There’s not an awful lot of hope
But there’s an awful lotta hate in this place 

Speak up I can’t hear you
Fuck this place/displaced

I Hate This
Wish I could change This…

‘This Place’ is not a protest song, and that is not why I wrote it. It is just the tortured noise in my head that has accumulated over the past forty years that I had to exorcise” (Andy Blade)

Andy Blade is one of the most under-rated and uncompromising song-writers of his and subsequent generations.

No-one else writes songs about suicide-bombers with a Eurovision style chorus sung by his kids. Or songs about missing kidnap victims that fetishize forensic paper suits.  Or quote Jeffrey Epstein in their album titles. After the brilliant ‘Being Alive Is Fun‘ which came out 18 months ago, the follow up has a lot to live up to. And mostly it does.

The presence of Derwood (former Generation X guitarist) again is very welcome. He has such a great distinctive tone and style of guitar playing it really makes a song. So much so that ‘I’m Sorry I’m Mentally Ill’ is included twice, the second time as ‘I’m Sorry’ (Derwood Mix)

Blade seems to treat the subject of mental health with a heavy dose of cynicism when related to chattering classes. (I’m sorry but I’m mentally ill, but I already told you that.)  And it amuses him to see them ‘choking on their own gas-lighting’ which is a fine mixed metaphor.

‘Mental Health’ is always the go-to excuse for letting people down I’ve always found. Basically like a calling card with the words ‘I’m sorry, I’m mentally ill’, and once presented, they feel there is no need to explain the actual reason for letting you down. I find it maddening (excuse the pun) because it’s not a good enough excuse, and we all are all ‘mentally ill’ to one degree or another. 

(Andy Blade – in conversation, from forthcoming interview)

Karen Is The Drummer is another of Blades songs (featuring Blade’s regular singing collaborator – Katerina Sharkova)where a cultural or newsworthy figure is put under his spotlight. This time Karen Carpenter.  In the past there has been Oliver Stone, Undercover cops and dodgy MP’s.

The title track  Tiny Specks is a re-write and re-recording of an older song called Electrified.  Much improved it’s a swirling vortex of home-made psychedelia as he mulls over our cosmic insignificance.  We’re just tiny specks in a great abyss...

You get what you deserve with Blade, and with ‘Tiny Specks In A Huge Abyss’ you are rewarded with a rich code to decipher at your leisure. Most of all, however, it is all about the quality of his songwriting.

Occasional Dinosaur Jr vocalist Tiffany Anders gives ‘I’m Not Myself’ a poppy but eerie nuance. PollyPikPocketz’s Myura Amara pops up on the short but very sweet ‘About That’. Matilda Scotland, Quick Romance’s uber-cool punky-chanteuse – adds her Gen Z aura to the summery ‘I Like It When You’re Happy’.

Arguably the most important song – or most relevant to current times is the one about Palestine.

‘This Place’ is another key track, capturing the claustrophobic-genocidal mood of what has been taking place in Gaza/Palestine…

“I first became properly aware of the Palestinian cause when I visited Israel as a 24 year old, naive tourist in the mid 1980’s – and was immediately detained because of my Arabic family name. Up until that point I hadn’t really tried to understand any of the dynamics of the conflict. I had listened but not really absorbed the stories told to me by my father, an Egyptian, who had been captured and tortured as a young soldier during the Israeli ‘war of independence’. All three generations of the Palestinian family I stayed with on the West Bank during my visit are now dead, and their land long since taken from them. I vividly remember the grandfather, in a trembling voice, pointing out the encroaching Jewish settlements that were edging ever closer. These European & American settlers – whose only claim to this land was by virtue of being Jewish. At the time I didn’t understand enough to fully comprehend his disgust & his fears, as he explained in broken English, the reality of trying to simply exist in a brutally occupied land. By the end of my stay however, after several unpleasant incidents with IDF patrols – who made damned sure they played their part in the day to day harassment, I was beginning to understand how evil this apartheid regime actually were.”

“When I returned to the UK, I suppose you could say I had become ‘politicised’ – although I did not, and do not, consider the Palestine issue as a political one. It goes way beyond politics. Unlike today, however, in the mid-80’s, there was little to no spotlight on the plight of the Palestinians. I’m pleasantly surprised how different that is today, with all eyes on Israel – but it has come at such a terrible price. It is the only place on Earth that I have lost count of the amount of friends & relatives who have been slaughtered there. It is clear to me, and all those who have done more than just scratch the surface of this tragic topic – that this is one of the the gravest of human injustices that has taken place in recent history, which is why the Palestinian cause has not – and will not – go away. Not until justice has been served.”

“I am not at all into ‘protest songs’ as a rule. Generally speaking, I find the genre quite cheesy, but – This Place is not a protest song, and that is not why I wrote it.”

On a lighter subject, there’s a fantastic line in the album Press Release which goes, as follows: If John Lydon is the Widow Twanky of Punk, and Billy Idol, its Elvis, then Andy Blade must surely be the Sinatra of Punk.

I wanted to find out who said it so googled it and the ‘AI overview’ which came up was hilarious (try it.)  I emailed Andy who found it very funny and put it straight up on his socials..

That quote evolved, started with Billy Duffy calling Idol the ‘Elvis of punk’, then Derwood & me added to it , about Lydon, then a reviewer whose name I forget added to it, & made me Sinatra, but yeah great quote haha!

This is one of Andys most dark and cynical albums, with societies ills being picked apart and people’s self-serving nature highlighted –  with him concluding ‘what’s the point?’ (Ceiling)  ‘I don’t care what you think’  (Fat Pig) and wanting to be someone else  (I’m Not Myself).  It doesn’t seem to have the redemption found in Peter Perretts ‘The Cleansing’ for example.

There is also a lot of love & compassion in my songs – I try and hide it at times, being a contrarian, but there is a lot of warmth there. I love people individually, but as a whole – they bring out this shield in me.  (AB)

He may not quite be the Sinatra of Punk, I’ve compared him to people like Gainsbourg and Joe Orton in earlier album reviews, and like the previous album there is a very Sparks-like playfulness and invention to the music… but Andy Blade really is a one-off. Quite possibly mentally ill, but most definitely very talented, uncompromising and never boring. Dig deep and you will find the love and warmth in there eventually.

This is his third-best solo album out of the seven. In my opinion.

Buy from Bandcamp

Andy Blade – Videos including his Podcast Interviews

Andy Blade Instagram

Andy Blade Facebook

All words by Ged Babey – except press release content in italics