Baxter Dury - Allbarone

It was Sunday June 28th, 2024 and Baxter had just stopped from a rapturously received set on The Park Stage at Glastonbury festival. After towelling himself down, a familiar figure approached him backstage. It was Paul Epworth, the lauded producer / songwriter whose creations have draped themselves across the airwaves of the 21st Century more successfully than other Briton.

They agreed to meet back in Epworth’s North London Church Studios in late November, not long after Baxter had finished touring his last album. Their first day in the studio working on this new eighth solo Baxter Dury album was an eye-opener for Baxter, though, and not just because of the comfortable surroundings of The Church which has hosted the likes of Frank Ocean and Adele (“incredible place, all this glistening fruit and catered sushi, I felt like the bloke from Trading Places, stuffing it down my  leeves”). Together they dreamt up Allbarone’s nine-track tour-de-force, stripping everything away and building Baxter’s most melodically direct, futuristic collection in intense three-hour daily shifts throughout December and January.