album review

Wreckless Eric

England Screaming

Tapete Records

CD/DL/LP

Released 21 November 2025

National Treasure (Cult division) re-records a shit album from his back-catalogue and it turns out far better than even he thought it would.  One song includes the line – ‘Still Life on a cubicle door: Cocks, bums and tits’ – which would possibly have been a better title though – says Ged Babey. 

In the same way as some peoples looks are described as: “He’s got a face only a mother could love”, Eric Goulden has a voice that only a true devotee can love.

It is a bit of a grating, nasal whine at times. And I say that as someone who could listen to him talk for hours and have a lot of respect for the bloke as an artist and a wonderful human being. His voice doesn’t seem to have mellowed, or deepened and got lower with age though – it’s growing old with him, like a fine whine!

If track one, side one, Lifeline, is the very first time you’ve heard Eric’s’ singing voice it may be something of a surprise…

That said, Neil Young and Bob Dylan have ‘distinctive’ voices which aren’t that easy-on-the-ear – but all three of them are great songwriters and it’s the combination of the words, delivery and music which make them the living legends they are.  And yes, I do put Eric on an equal artistic footing with the other two, despite their bank balances being vastly different.

Originally called A Roomful Of Monkeys (released on Go! Discs under the name Captains Of Industry in 1985) the album has been re-named England Screaming – a nod to England’s Dreaming (Jon Savages punk history book – itself taken from The Pistols God Save The Queen) which to me, is Eric finally, reluctantly accepting that he is a part of Punk History.

He released an album called A Living Museum previously – but he knows he was entirely separate from any genre or so-called ‘movement’.  He was always a one-off, and always will be.

Practically a National Treasure, although one that you’ll find in a junk-shop rather than the V&A, Eric seems to be even more popular now than ever before. (I put this down to the coverage that I and a few other writers gave him thru the wilderness years…. although his work ethic substantially increased increased once he met Amy Rigby.)

Much of the subject matter of England Screaming is bleak and depressing, it was Thatchers Britain in the 80’s after all.  It really is a gritty, fly on the wall documentary about the left behind working classes in god-forsaken small towns and new towns and forgotten town of the provinces.  Hull or the Medway towns where he lived I imagine.

There is blood on the brickwork and shit smeared on the tiles and the girls fight in the pubs as well as the blokes.

Ray Davies comparisons are a bit wide of the mark, because he highlighted the quaint and the loveable characters whereas Eric’s focus is the thick and feckless.  There are a couple of songs which are hugely pessimistic and dismissive in that they mention suicide as an alternative to the ‘poverty of everyday life’.

Eric writes in the album Sleevenotes:
I wrote about what was around me, stuff I knew about – drugs, home ownership, bankruptcy and bridal wear; being from somewhere, keeping up appearances, delusion, failure. A mundane life in a terraced street… Chatham was rough. There was a huge naval dockyard but this had just shut down. In 1982 the Medway Towns were in economic decline. We settled into life in this weird conglomeration of small towns and some kind of routine imposed itself. I’d wake up with a hangover at about half past six or seven o’clock in the morning, the cold light from white street lamps leaking through cheap, unlined curtains… The dawn chorus round here was sung by starter motors – the sound of other people going to work. I didn’t have a job. I walked around, cataloguing the increasing collection of boarded-up shops in the high street. I came home and wrote reams of lyrics about what I saw. I spied on the neighbours – who were spying on us anyway – I wrote about them.

Lady of the Manor is the singalong hit from the album and does stand with Erics very best work and overall it is a brilliant album – a time-capsule re-recorded so that it sounds better, authentic and gritty.

But with the country the way it is, I can’t stop myself thinking that the people who inhabit these songs are still around (and their offspring) – and I think I can guess which way they will vote come the next General Election.

This isn’t Eric’s fault of course – but it will maybe stop me listening to this album ‘for pleasure’. But I can never get thru a repeat viewing of a Mike Leigh movie either to be honest.

I remember when Eric on his blog would ‘review’ his reviews and point out the errors and inaccuracies of my fellow critics.  He is welcome to his ‘Right To Reply’ to this one… but maybe that is the point.  England has always had these characters who hold sway in small-towns – they would beat-up anyone who was different to them (skin-colour, effeminacy, dressing differently) but there’s new scapegoats in town in 2025.

Is this album supposed to be a ‘history lesson’?  Probably not. The music is great – but the reality behind the words is a reminder that maybe things in this country never fuckin’ change. England forever dreaming, scheming and screaming.

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Erics back catalogue on Bandcamp

All words by Ged Babey