{"product_id":"dan-ofarrell-the-difference-engine-the-fish-that-learned-to-drown-vinyl-lp-due-out-23-01-26","title":"Dan O'Farrell \u0026 The Difference Engine The Fish That Learned To Drown Vinyl LP 2026","description":"\u003cp\u003eDan O'Farrell \u0026amp; The Difference Engine The Fish That Learned To Drown Vinyl LP\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTracklist:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e1. Heartbreak Hostel\u003cbr\u003e\n2. The Colonial Club\u003cbr\u003e\n3. Cyanide Desire\u003cbr\u003e\n4. God etc\u003cbr\u003e\n5. Sunny Weather\u003cbr\u003e\n6. Alarm\u003cbr\u003e\n7. Hang me on the Wall\u003cbr\u003e\n8. Loss\u003cbr\u003e\n9. Asbestos Love\u003cbr\u003e\n10. Goodbye\u003cbr\u003e\n11. The Fish the Learned to Drown\u003cbr\u003e\n12. Ursa Minor\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFormed from the ashes of John Peel-endorsed indie-band Accrington Stanley. Dan O'Farrell \u0026amp; The Difference Engine's fourth album (recorded and produced by Andy Lewis) arrives at the start of 2026 like a cold, sharp bucket of water in the face. Bracing and troubling - like a tongue returning to a sore tooth - these songs probe life's dark waters: loss of family, faith, community \u0026amp; self-confidence - but also remains empathetic and rousing, ultimately cathartic. Once you've scraped the bottom, the only way is up. Creation is always an act of joyful defiance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased in Southampton, and formed from the ashes of John Peel-endorsed indie-band Accrington Stanley, the band bring layers of warmth and subtlety to the uncompromisingly lyrical alt-folk songs of Dan O'Farrell, English-teacher by day and angry, leftist complainer by night.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe songs take a zig-zagging tour of the narrator's struggles with life, 'maturity' and the joys of middle-age. Opener Heartbreak Hostel was 'written for Elvis Presley, but he never got back to us'. In The Colonial Club the personal angst becomes political - a gammon-baiting response to the pearl-clutching horror of the right to the sight of statues of slave-owners being chucked in the sea. Racing through the Dexy's-inspired passionate danger of 'Cyanide Desire' , - why do the things we love always have to kill us? - we land on the spiritual treatise of God Etc. 'I let Jesus take the wheel...he drove me off a cliff'. Like all lapsed cradle-Catholics, O'Farrell experiences the push-pull of his religious upbringing, searching for meaning as he tries to become as 'nakedly human' as possible. Side one ends with the double-whammy of Sunny Weather and Alarm, the first a Groucho Marx-quoting jazz-breeze where the narrator struggles to just chill in the sun - for gods sake!- and the second a pretty, shimmering exploration of how hard it is to communicate with the ones we love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe album's second half starts with another dose of dark humour: Hang Me On The Wall takes masochistic joy in imagining a series of life-ending scenarios, with co-vocalist Rick Foot getting all the best lines. The album's two 'cornerstone' tracks are positioned carefully on side two. Track 2 ( or 7 on the CD), Loss tries to deal with the grief that hits us all - the howl of pain that emerges at the end of the song probably saying as much as all the preceding lyrics. Track 4 (10), Goodbye, returns to the theme of loneliness and miscommunication - the universal ache - yet the music soars. Sandwiched between these two party-anthems (!) comes the album's poppiest track, Asbestos Love, a slightly demented paean to global-warming. The album's closing tracks - The Fish That Learned To Drown and Ursa Minor - complete the arc, and - finally - offer some hope of struggle and growth, and then redemption and self-acceptance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe album will be launched at Heartbreakers in Southampton on 24th January, 2026\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Assai Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56641552122239,"sku":"GDNLP126","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1565\/5653\/files\/402e641f-d8ee-4919-b780-a49686e0ffda.jpg?v=1771518736","url":"https:\/\/assai.co.uk\/products\/dan-ofarrell-the-difference-engine-the-fish-that-learned-to-drown-vinyl-lp-due-out-23-01-26","provider":"Assai Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}