Album review: Willy Mason, Carry On (Fiction)

Five years ago, Willy Mason was saddled with the damning sobriquet of the latest "new Dylan", giving him just enough time to lose impetus before the current nu-folk boom took off.

Certainly, compared to the generational issues and outsider affiliations of his debut, Where the Humans Eat, this third album sounds exhausted, worn out rather than careworn. "All the money's dying," he observes on "What Is This", "Is it really worth trying?". The answer's there in the enervated delivery, and the fatalistic strum-and-shuffle settings used throughout the album.

Download: What Is This; Painted Glass