MARTYN JOSEPH
1960 PIPE
Ripe ruminations and canyon yearning from veteran Welsh guitarist
8/10
Although he turned 60 last year, Martyn Joseph calls his 23rd album his “coming of age” record. “How long does it take a man to know himself?” he asks on the opening track “Born Too Late”, as he looks back elegiacally on a life well lived. “Should have gone to Laurel Canyon in 1971/ Could’ve sold some songs to Joni, hung out in the sun,” he sings, capturing the pipedreams of a generation growing up in British suburban drabness. The other 10 songs are no less poignant, full of treasured memories and universal themes of joy and sadness. Ripeness is all, as the Bard once said.