A Tale Of Two Cities is an appropriate title for this album for various reasons personal to Ben Hudson. For me, however, it seems appropriate because there is something quite Dickensian about the music contained within it. Yes, had C Dicky chosen not to write books but become a hip hop artist instead (bear with me here), I’m sure he would have come up with something close to this.

Mr Hudson deals with many themes common to hip hop and R&B: hanging out in clubs, love, money, drugs and not being a gentleman. He does it so politely, though. On Ask The DJ he sings, “What tune is this?/I don’t know, but I like it/If you ask the DJ/on Monday I’ll buy it,” amongst talk of B-boys and upsetting the neighbours. This characterises the soft spoken, slightly old fashioned delivery that courses through A Tale Of Two Cities from beginning to end.

It’s hard to offer any comparison to help build a picture in your mind because Mr Hudson & The Library aren’t really like anything else. You could perhaps mention The Kinks for the very British and finely-woven stories. Maybe you could call it an upper class version of The Streets. Maybe I should just stop guessing and accept this on its own, well turned out terms.

Label: Mercury
Website: www.mrhudsonandthelibrary.com
Release date: 5th March 2007

Tracklist:

1. The Streets Where You Live
2. Brave The Cold
3. Too Late Too Late
4. Everything Happens To Me
5. Cover Girl
6. Two By Two
7. Bread & Roses
8. Ask The DJ
9. Picture Of You
10. One Specific Thing
11. Ghost
12. Upon The Heath