Cosmo – Picket Line Party

Cosmo – a local protest singer who, as far as we can tell, has no ties with with the popular women’s magazine – was recording and uploading these tracks throughout 2011, and boy did that year give him a lot of fuel for his fire. These twelve songs skewer everyone from the government to the music industry to the English Defence League, and while the first few are fairly lighthearted – the EDL one is an enjoyable knees-up which features a kazoo solo and liberal use of the word ‘bollocks’ – Cosmo seems to become angrier and wearier as time and the album wear on. Still, hope outlasts all of the poverty, protests and police brutality that pass under the anarcho-folk microscope, and the Guthrie-esque closer could lift even the lowest of spirits. JDE

www.cosmoguitar.net