Album review: We’re All Alone In This Together
With Dave’s first album, Psychodrama, debuting at number 1 in the album charts and winning Mercury and Brit awards, his second album was always going to carry a weight of expectation. The follow-up, We’re All Alone in this Together—a title he got from a conversation with pianist Hans Zimmer reflecting on the pandemic—lives up to its predecessor, effortlessly mixing in emotional depth, self-reflection, and social and political commentary.
Image Credit: Pitchfork
Undeniably personal, Dave traces elements of his and his family’s history, particularly his mother's, reflecting on fame and opening up about his own mental health struggles—themes we’re not always used to seeing reflected in chart-topping albums.
Dave is never one to shy away from politics. His performance at the Brits called out the UK Prime Minister for being a “real racist,” and his breakout track Question Time called out then-Prime Minister Theresa May for the issues in her premiership, while questioning former leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn on where he “wants to take the country to”. Dave addresses topics from immigration and poverty to knife crime and domestic violence from his own unique viewpoint, based on his lived experiences.
Taking a slightly wider lens, a standout track ‘Three Rivers’ traces three different stories of migration to the UK: the Windrush scandal, Eastern Europe in the 90s, and the Middle East. Making astute political points, he addresses how the Windrush generation were “broken by the country that they came to fix”. In the last verse, and particularly relevant given the year we have had, he states:
“We rely on immigration more than ever before / They’re key workers but they couldn’t even get through the door”
With Dido Harding announcing that the National Health Service (NHS) needed to end its reliance on foreigners in her campaign to become it’s CEO, these lyrics reflect a harsh reality of life for immigrants in the UK: unwanted regardless of what they contribute. More personally, and heartbreakingly, ‘Heart attack’ closes with a clip of Dave’s mother breaking down recalling her own experience leaving Africa and immigrating to Europe.
‘Heart attack’ is another album highlight, turning its attention to knife crime. Starting with a news clip that knife crime is at a record high, Dave reflects on how poverty often drives people into these situations: “'Round here main way to provide for your kin / Is in a flick blade, little push-bike and a sim”.
The influence of Dave’s mother is also woven throughout the album. On ‘Both Sides of a Smile,’ Dave recounts growing up “seeing mummy count pennies”, and on ‘In the Fire’, shrewdly observes that “Crime's on the rise, hate's on the rise / Feel like everythin' but my mum's pay's on the rise,” referencing his mum’s NHS salary. On the opening track, he reflects on growing up in a “two-bed flat with seven people livin' with me” and expressed gratitude to his mum as the “the one that gave me opportunities / And put me in positions that I couldn't have pictured myself”—a theme returned to on ‘Heart Attack’ where he considering how ungrateful he was in his youth, before asking: “How many of our parents had dreams / They abandoned so they could put food on the table?”
Moving from the personal to the political, and covering its intersections stunningly, it is no wonder Dave’s sound resonates in this ever-confusing and seemingly unjust world. As he states on the closing track, “the government ain't gonna help with all the issues that I'm tacklin',” and so a voice like Dave’s is undoubtedly needed.
