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Although it’s a theme that has become increasingly relevant in recent years, not just via the person referenced in the title but relating to any number of would-be, hard-man, populist leaders espousing a return to better times, “Trumped Up” echoes with a timeless concern and anxiety that runs through the whole of human history. But with right-leaning leaders remaining in or poised over positions of power (although, ironically, less so at the moment in his own UK home) across the world, it is a story that still needs telling, a song that still needs to be sung.
But if the theme is a timeless one, the song is a more recent personal departure from the typically understated folk-infused style that you would usually associate John Tibbits with. Although based on an acoustic rhythmic core, the song quickly explodes in a sonic wave of buoyant beats and snarling guitars, resulting in something that leans much more to the politically aware and socially conscious punk-folk of the likes of The Levellers or Frank Turner than folk in the more traditional sense.
And once “Trumped Up” finds a way to harness that inner rage, the song being sung from the point of view of an acolyte of one such demagogue or rabble-rouser who follows blindly and questions nothing, it becomes a gorgeously sharp piece of social observation, not to mention a squalling and brilliantly intense sonic tirade.
Folk music with a newly sharpened set of teeth. I like it.
