''Like Comedy'' is the ninth studio album from Scottish

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

duo

The Proclaimers The Proclaimers are a Scottish Rock music, rock duo formed in 1983 by twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid (born 5 March 1962). They came to attention with their 1987 single "Letter from America (song), Letter from America", which reached No. 3 ...

, released in 2012 on

Cooking Vinyl Cooking Vinyl is a British independent record label, based in Acton, London, England. It was founded in 1986 by former manager and booking agent Martin Goldschmidt and his business partner Pete Lawrence. Goldschmidt remains the current owner an ...

. The album reached number 31 on the UK charts. The album's first single was "Spinning Around in the Air", which reached No. 17 on the

UK Indie Singles Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the r ...

Content and style

Musical style

''Like Comedy'' has been categorised as a

blue-eyed soul Blue-eyed soul (also called white soul) is rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly black Motown and St ...

album, stylistically. ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' described the record as "consistent collection of unvarnished Celtic soul". The song "Thought Of You" was described by ''AllMusics James Monger as " rocking" and "radio-ready", while "After You're Gone" was described as the "bruised, yet still hopeful" sister ballad to the duo's 1988 hit " Sunshine on Leith".

Lyrics and themes

Lyrics on ''Like Comedy'' dealt chiefly with themes of love and relationships, as well as those of ageing, language and belief systems. ''The Scotsman'' described the songwriting on the album as "thoughtful and witty".

Critical reception

''Like Comedy'' received an aggregate score from ''

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

'' of 71/100, suggesting "generally favorable reviews", based on 6 critics. In a review by Andy Gill, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' professed the album to feature "their ebullient charm in large dollops" and described the song "Whatever You've Got" to share "the rolling, singalong appeal" of the duo's previous hits. Describing ''Like Comedy'', ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

'' opined that the blue-eyed soul of the band "still shines bright, especially on the tender

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

Track listing

Personnel

;The Proclaimers * Craig Reid – vocals * Charlie Reid – acoustic guitar and vocals ;Additional musicians * Jerry Crozier Cole – acoustic and electric guitars * Steve Evans – electric and bass guitars, piano and drums * Clive Jenner – drums * Beth Porter – cello * Katie Stone Lonergan – violin * Zac Ware –

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

* David Macnab –

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

* Conor Breen – double bass ;Production * Steve Evans – producer, string arrangements and additional programming * Tom Dalgety – additional programming * Lewis MacDonald – cover design

References

{{Authority control The Proclaimers albums 2012 albums Cooking Vinyl albums Blue-eyed soul albums Soul albums by Scottish artists Celtic albums by Scottish artists