Trouble Came Looking
The Scotsman 6th April 2013


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The voice that has driven Deacon Blue all these years has re-established his Dundonian identity in a revitalised solo career. Gone are the American rock affectations of old, to be replaced by folk and country influences and songs coloured by the biographical and stripped of bombast and bluster.

Now I Smoke Like I Used To Pray is good old fundamentalism turned on its head, but this has the air of a man musically filling his lungs with fresh ideas. Holy Night has a sparse fragility to make Paul Buchanan envious, and is political with the smallest of “p”s.