I missed the guys at the V Festival but could hear the old favourites ringing out across the fields on Sunday at Weston Park. But I did witness a performance a couple of years ago right here in Wrexham and enjoyed the experience. This brand new album is highly enjoyable and reveals brothers that are so enthusiastic about what they do, it’s infectious.

LIFE WITH YOU opens with the anthemic title track, a vibrant, rollicking song with powerful rhythm, great melody, good lyrics and vividly clear vocals. A great start. The guys take a pop at a number of current topics including ‘celebrity’ and ‘honours’ with the next song ‘In Recognition’ which opens with “In recognition of our 100 million album sales/In recognition of your popularity/You take a gaudy prize from people you said you despise/You wear your self-respect upon your bended knee…” and a stripped-down guitar backdrop. It’s a stonkingly good commentary on today’s music scene and welcome. ‘New Religion’ opens in church organ mode before opening out with strong guitar riffs with a piano arriving eventually to drive the song home. ‘S.O.R.R.Y.’ is a reflective, political song that beautifully expound the problems surrounding the Iraq war and the dreadful mistakes made by our politicians. ‘No One Left To Blame’ is another beauty containing simple and direct lyrics (which are typical of this excellent album), with a pleasant country vibe. ‘Here It Comes Again’ is an effective, upbeat song that hints strongly at the misogyny prevalent in mainstream music, while ‘Harness Pain’ is a gentle, beautiful song about love (“You need to harness pain to raise yourself up again… You need to break your heart before you can really start….” A soft country vibe is ideally suited to the songs profound sentiments, while the brothers’ vocal tone is ideally matched to the message. ‘Whole Wide World’ is a vibrant, terrific cover of the Wreckless Eric song and the final song ‘If There’s A God’ where the widening gap in both health and wealth between the world’s rich and poor is invoked with sincerity and great emotion, helped by hammered keyboards and highly expressive vocals.

I believe this album sets a new, higher standard for the Proclaimers, and gives them some very relevant material to take them through the next few years without having to resort to the old, rather tired, favourites. A musically excellent and meaningful album.

4/5