Dirty Pretty Things - band photo

Carl Barat’s band of merry minstrels return with another celebration of dear old Blighty.

Fulfilling his role in a lineage that stretches back to Vera Lyne and forward to Ray Davies, “Tired Of England” is a celebration of mushy peas, greasy cafes and cups of weak tea. A taster from new album “Romance At Short Notice”, the single ironically defines the parochial nature of some aspects of English life through its blinkered refusal to acknowledge any developments in pop music post ’68. Acid House? Not round here mate, it’s all Kinks B-sides and the ’66 final.

Barat is still capable of the odd incisive lyrical remark, the Libertine in him still evident with such couplets as “the Queen of England sits on her throne / With a bingo card and a chicken bone”. A breezy, summery romp maybe, but like those fabled English summers of yore it’s all a bit of a let down.