NORTH Perth singer/songwriter Davey Craddock has gone all “gnarled” and dark in his second album One Punch.

It’s a stark departure from his debut City West, which had a classic Aussie country sound.

“There are no love songs, no country songs in One Punch,” Craddock says.

The songs examine men’s relationships with other men.

“Or perhaps their inability to relate, to connect…Whether fathers or friends.”

The title song is about the growing number of one-punch attacks—there’s blood on the pavement, helicopters overhead and a racist shouting over a fence, as the blurry-eyed protagonist leads us down a taxi rank, where each bloodied customer is given the chance to explain themselves and their bruises.

• Davey Craddock and the Spectacles: Mo Wilson, Craddock, Pete Stone, Bryn Stanford and Luke Dux. Photo
supplied

“What the hell are these people so angry about?” Craddock sings.

“What are we all so angry about?

What the fuck is going on.”

The singer/narrator could be an observer standing on the other side of the road, or he could be the perpetrator of an unprovoked attack, Craddock says.

“The song is trying to work out why men belt the shit out of each other.”

Half of the songs on the album were written while Craddock was touring the US and the presidential election debates were on television.

“An anxiety-inducing time, a tumultuous time to be writing an album,” he says.

Davey Craddock and the Spectacles (Mo Wilson, Pete Stone, Bryn Stanford and Luke Dux) will launch One Punch at Mojos, in North Fremantle, February 10.

by JENNY D’ANGER