POP

When Ivor Cutler died in 2006 aged 83 a little piece of British culture died too, never to return. Celebrated by many as Scotland’s alternative poet laureate, his talents as a writer, poet, songsmith, humorist were like no other: Cutler’s world view was slightly out of register with the practical world which meant he could evoke unique, often surreal takes on the human condition.

The welcome reissue of this album – unavailable since 1999 – is on a label set up by Cutler’s family to revisit his extensive archive. Darker at points but no less childlike and playful, his harmonium creaks out a weary tune or a Jew’s harp twangs delightfully while Cutler intones his own vivid juxtapositions. He was the ‘master of the inappropriate’: a title few could even begin to aspire to.