Don't Tell Columbus Album

Sometimes an artist is anointed a “legend.” Sometimes this artist’s
body of work is so consistently lauded, of such ongoing interest and
creativity, the audience might be tempted to take the level of craft
for granted. Sometimes such an artist, after a time of flying beneath
the radar, emerges with a run of stunning material ascending beyond
time and genre. Sometimes this artist casts a shadow large enough they
are known by just their initials. GP is such an artist and this is his
time.Thirty years into a storied career in rock ‘n’ roll that
began with his band The Rumour (pre-saging new wave, pub rock and punk)
Graham Parker finds himself at the absolute top of his game and in the
midst of a extended creative hot streak. Don’t Tell Columbus
crackles with desperation and redemption sung with rich, passionate
power. And hooks. Lots and lots of effortless hooks. Yes, the new
millennium has thus far been very good to GP and music fans reap the
rewards.Suffused with the heft of the epic, Don’t Tell Columbus’s
lyrical and emotional resonance straddles the Atlantic and evinces GP’s
stature as one of the most gifted writers in rock ‘n’ roll. From the
personal and metaphorically grand “The Other Side of the Reservoir” to
the overtly political and swinging “Stick to the Plan,” this album
ripples with tension between the melancholic, the urgent and the
hopeful. Best of all, it’s wrapped in his gifted brawny pop and
blue-eyed soul smarts. Only GP can have you happily humming along to
songs swaddled in desperate loneliness and internal mayhem.It
is unhealthy, perhaps even obscene, that someone should be able to come
up with an album this good this far into their career.(From Bloodshot Records)