Beans On Toast: Kill Them With Kindness

(Self-released via BOT Music)

CD | LP | DL | Stream

Out 1st December 2025

PRE-ORDER HERE

Our Score

Just as much as you expect Christmas to come around each December, then you can be certain that every year this will be preceded by the annual birthday album by our folk troubadour and storytelling champion, the one and only Beans On Toast. This time Beans has finally cornered his touring band to record a collection of songs entitled Kill Them With Kindness which not only tackles the big problems of the modern world, but also focuses on the importance of family, community, hope and positivity.

For nearly two decades Beans On Toast has been enthralling us with his candid songwriting which serves to both entertain and inspire. And through the medium of song, poetry and his writing, Beans continues to celebrate life and the human spirit with his trademark wit which is always engaging, his warmth which is always endearing and above all else his honesty which is such a rare quality these days. I do not believe anyone can leave one of his live shows without feeling some renewed inspiration to go out there and make a difference to the world around them however big or small.

Of course we must be realistic about what music can achieve in itself. As Billy Bragg has so rightly observed in the past, “music cannot change the world…..it has no agency” but “it can make you believe the world can be changed.” And this is the very spirit that Beans channels through his songs and performances as he tackles the big problems of the modern world, whilst also understanding the importance of family, community, hope and positivity. And as Beans brings us his annual collection of songs through his new album, Kill Them With Kindness, he channels his energy into a wide variety of topics from art, war, politics, and religion, through to trees, rock n roll, drinking and the appalling redesign of the pelican crossing.

Following on from last years stripped back sound on Wild Goose Chasers which was primarily just backed by guitar and keyboard, this year Beans has harnessed the incredible talents of his touring band all of whom have become musical friends through being hand-picked from the UK music and festival scene. The band includes Abbi Phillips on drums, Bassie Gracie on bass, King Killership on keys (in this case it’s a vintage Fender Rhodes), Memphis Gerland on guitar and Ruth Lyon on fiddle. So, this year we really have got the A team to guide us through this rich tapestry of inspiring thoughts and observations.

As Beans explains, “We’ve done a few tours together, but this was our first venture into a studio. Each one of them is amazing, and together… well, I’m proper chuffed with how it sounds. This album is a bit of a juxtaposition, as is the title. There are songs that deal with the current state of the world. Wars, maniac leaders, the rise of AI and the fall of the establishment. Then there are songs about trees, late nights in music venues, art, love and my new cat. As usual, it’s a time stamp of my thoughts and feelings from the past year on planet Earth.” So lets dive in and get our heads around a few home truths….

Opening song The Great North Road really sets the scene for all that is to follow as its bright and uplifting vibe, which is aided by Ruth’s fiddle, celebrates the joy of meeting new people and life on the road. Its core message though is very much centred around the fact that “maybe art is as important now as it’s always been” as Beans encourages creativity in us all to paint our own pictures in whatever form of the world as we see it, something which is reinforced through Bassie Gracie’s poem which is embedded in the song. Gods, Children And Robots wastes no time in raising the protest flag with this thought provoking and hard hitting address on the “state of the world today” focused very much on the war machines which are dominating world politics and destroying so many innocent lives as well as the rise of artificial intelligence and the concern that it will ”hand over power to the machines.”

Comfortable In The Counterculture follows in a similar vein centred around the view that “the leaders are all liars.” It’s a song which bristles with an upbeat country style groove featuring some dazzling guitar runs from Merland. Meanwhile, Pelican Crossing allows the Fender Rhodes to shine through as it offers a vibrant take on the absurdity of modern living in this “messy and complicated world” in which, in spite of all our best (or worst!) efforts, “still we are all divided.” And yes this includes the revamp of the pelican crossing which “just made it worse.” Beans adopts a more melancholy mood in the gentle stripped back ballad The Fall Of The Establishment which laments about the scary way in which the world continues to change around us all.

The Glastonbury Oak is a true and very heartwarming tale about a tree that appeared at the Glastonbury Festival which eventually ended up being planted at a pub near the Peak District. And if you go to Beans’ album launch show at The Strines Nightingale near Stockport on release day of 1st December you can see the tree for yourself. A Real Rock’n’Roller is a celebration of music, culture and friendship through Beans’ friendship with Loraine Burgon, a 60s icon who was slap bang in the middle of the cultural revolution. It’s a song with a rockin’ vibe which oozes positivity from a life well lived. Beans goes into his chance meeting with Loraine in more detail in his new book, Wild Folk People which is a collection of stories about the wonderful people Beans has met on his journey through life and she is also featured in his Wild Folk Podcast. The video for the song features a collection of Loraine’s photos from 1960’s London and San Francisco.

Beans of course spends a lot of his time on the road which gives him a sense of joy to share his music and his stories with his audience, even when this brings a few perils along the way, as illustrated in Big Night Out In Shrewsbury. Well, who else could end up sleepwalking onto the fire escape of a cheap hotel whilst having “the worst night’s sleep that I’ve ever had”? With Ruth back on the fiddle its another jaunty country style ditty in which Beans still finds a way to finish off with a positive spin, promising that “whatever happens we will set it right come the morning light.” And in a further moment of enlightenment, Beans reflects on the reasons why he has changed his drinking habits, explaining That’s Why I Don’t Drink Tequila Anymore with his usual candid honesty as the bouncing rhythm of the song is steered effortlessly along by Killership’s keys.

In Taylor Swift For President, Beans goes punk as the band rip this one up in a short but sweet frenzied attack focused very much on his observation of Stateside politics and a view on who would win his vote on the grounds of having worldwide appeal as well as many other qualities. And just to balance this out Beans admits his own mis-judgement in the country blues refrain of Our Cat as he accepts that having a pet cat in the family wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

No Beans On Toast album would be complete without a love song for his wife Lizzy Bee and with just Beans accompanied by a lone guitar, Happy Birthday serves as the perfect ballad to tick this particular box. The album closes out with Magicians And Outlaws in which Beans reflects back on his sheer joy at playing a gig at The Blue Moon Tavern in Seattle, a long-standing institution famous for, amongst other things, being the favourite bar of one of his favourite American novelists Tom Robbins who sadly passed away at the start of the year. Celebrating the importance of poetry and prose it’s a fitting way to conclude the album.

In Kill Them With Kindness, Beans On Toast has once again produced a wonderfully insightful collection of songs which are often challenging yet always engaging in their beauty and simplicity, alongside the positivity which so often exudes from the grooves regardless of the difficulties he sings about. As ever the album draws on Beans ability to inspire as well as entertain and these songs will provide a perfect accompaniment to his huge back catalogue of songs for his forthcoming live shows.

Following on from Beans’ current solo tour of the UK which continues up to 13th December when in concludes in Ramsgate, you can catch The Beans On Toast Band on tour in March 2026 at the following dates:

March
04 SHEFFIELD – Sidney & Matilda
05 NEWCASTLE – The Cluny
06 GLASGOW – Stereo
07 LEEDS – Brudenell Social Club
11 BIRMINGHAM – Hare & Hounds
12 BRISTOL – The Fleece
13 CARDIFF – Clwb Ifor Bach
14 MANCHESTER – Band on the Wall
18 EXETER – Phoenix
19 SOUTHAMPTON – The Brook
20 BRIGHTON – Concorde 2

You can get tickets for all tour dates here.

You can listen to Beans On Toast’s Wild Folk Podcast here.

You can pre-order the album here.

You can find Beans On Toast on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, Bandcamp and his website.

~

All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile here.