Punk pioneer/Eater main-man, Andy Blades 7th solo album and follow up to 2024s critically acclaimed & heavily rotated, Sparks bros endorsed Being Alive Is Fun. It is imbued with the usual left-of-centre Blade-isms & themes: star maps, UFOs & a slightly twisted nod to tragic 70s heroine Karen Carpenter. You get what you deserve with Blade, and with Tiny Specks 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.

Opening track Karen Is The Drummer (featuring Blades regular singing collaborator – PseudoPomps Katerina Sharkova) seems unsettlingly self-explanatory, but all does not seem well in the Carpenter M.O.R world – Its just her & her brother & her folks indifference to that girl.

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

Former Generation X guitarist Bob Derwood Andrews, with whom Blade has worked with consistently of late, once again features heavily on Tiny Specks Like with Katerina Sharkovas voice, Derwood guitar lines interweave with Blades honeyed vocal as though they made for each other.

This Place is another key track, capturing the claustrophobic-genocidal mood of what has been taking place in Gaza/Palestine for over two years now, and counting. This is not so much a protest song as it is the noise in my head.

If John Lydon is the Widow Twanky of Punk, and Billy Idol, its Elvis, then Andy Blade must surely be the Sinatra of Punk.

1. CLOSE TO YOU + KAREN IS THE DRUMMER
2. I LIKE IT WHEN YOURE HAPPY
3. IM SORRY IM MENTALLY ILL
4. MUD
5. THIS PLACE
6. ABOUT THAT
7. IM NOT MYSELF
8. TINY SPECKS
9. THE CEILING
10. FAT PIG
11. IM SORRY (DERWOOD MIX)
12. YOU KEEP SAYING + CLOSE TO YOU