THIS TIME NEXT YEAR ....

Ever the optimist, Del Boy was convinced that his next wheeze was going to make him and Rodney rich. Well, the truth is that Cash Crisis make music because we enjoy the creative process, each of us having spent our working lifetimes wrestling with the world of finance. It's not for the fame or riches (though a little recognition would be nice!), but I guess we dream of our great-grandchildren one day hearing some CC track on their earpiece computer and thinking "Actually that's not bad". As we are all on or over the cusp of retirement............

This is the fifth album from the boys. We needed to sell the first of these as we were young and poor and needed to cover our costs, but all proceeds from the subsequent albums including this have been used to support our favourite charities.

2015 marks the 40th anniversary of the band's formation, and you might think we'd be experts at assembling another album by now, but the modern era for the band only really started in 2005 when we started writing for 'Got More Bills'. The fact is that we are still learning the crafts of arranging and mixing. What seemed fairly straightforward in 2006, we now know is immensely technical!

The initial songwriting for 'This time..' was relatively quick but most of the 5-year gestation period was about re-arranging, recording, editing and production. This tortuous process was ably assisted by our sound engineer, Sam Gallacher, whose patience with Nigel's exacting standards was commendable in one so young. Whilst most of the lyrics continue to gush from Nigel's pen, the musical genres are quite diverse and we have probably each contributed in equal measure to the variety of musical styles you'll find on this album.

The songs range from the infectious joie de vivre of 'Beach Bar Serenade' - (if it doesn't at least make you smile, you may need Prozac) to the gloomy and eerie 'It might as well be Winter' (after which you will definitely need it). There is also an injection of rock in 'Bad Momma' (we hope this was just a fantasy, Nigel!), 'Rebound' and 'Wonder Woman', each showing up our 1960's/1970's love of rock guitar. These were all 3-man compositions and mostly recorded live as we have found that studio assemblies of mechanical drums and solo recorded parts just doesn't work with rock, where the whole band needs to be 'feelin' the groove'

As you might expect there is the usual sprinkling of the classic soft harmony rock in the traditional Cash Crisis mould ('Claire', 'This is Where we Kissed'). Then there is a rather unusual titular juxtaposition of the jazz swing 'Lost the Blues' with the blues song 'Life is a swing'.

For fear of leaving any classic modern styles untouched, there is also a modern folk song from Nigel and Jon ('Lit') and a romantic rock ballad from Nigel ('Budapest'). In case you were wondering, yes there is also an acapella composition in 'A single strand of hair' and an instrumental from Ron 'Camembert'. Still, no Cash Crisis album would be complete without a rant from Nigel. This time the unfortunate victims of his ire are town planners in the very grumpy 'Will they leave it as a garden?' all bizarrely set to a bubble-gum tune.

Last but not least we have an unclassifiable 'Send me no Tomorrows' from Ron.

Hmmm... tempting fate at our age if you ask me, mate!