Richard Dawson - End of the Middle

The title of Richard Dawson's new album ‘End of the Middle’ is a suitably slippery contradiction, one that invites multiple interpretations: Middle aging? Middle class? The middle point of Dawson’s career? The centre of a record? Centrism in general? Polarisation? The possibility of having a balanced discussion about anything? Stuck in the middle with you? Middle England? Middling songwriting?

‘End of the Middle’ is a wonkily beautiful peer into the workings of the family unit, perhaps several generations of the same family: “I wanted this record to be small-scale and very domestic,” Dawson explains, “to be stripped back, stark and naked, and let the lyrics and melodies speak for themselves and for the people in the songs.”