The Reckoning

Topic's series of reissues from its back catalogue in celebration of its 80th year continues to impress with this deluxe expansion of John Tams' third solo album, from 1995, The Reckoning. The War Horse and Sharpe veteran of stage, screen and studio is at his best here, and the set comes with an extended essay from Mick Houghton, featuring an in-depth interview with Tams about his widely varied work and inspirations.

A political songwriter, polemic always gave way to a more empathic mediums of exchange. He uses character and story, distilled to their essences, to get his stories across via wonderful melodies and performances that reel you in and turn you inside out rather than haranguing you with the kind of political certainties and ‘absolutes’ that has poisoned the well of our national discourses in the past few years. It may be 25 years in the past, and you'll find references to the miners' strikes of the 1980s, but the sense of engagement, protest against and interaction with the socio-politico-economic forces that guide and bind us more than we may like to admit is, in Ezra Pound's words, news that stays news – that is, proper poetry.