“Not a day without a murder / Not a week without a bomb” proclaims Jim Bob, somewhere near the peak of his new single. A burst of punk rock anger shows the one-time Carter USM frontman in a particularly angry mood. …And rightly so, since the world seemed to be falling apart as we all hurtled into the new year, unaware that things were in fact about to get worse.

For Jim’s long term fans, the brief track’s punky edges might call to mind a couple of old Carter b-sides, but it still shows a man with a sharp mind and sharper message. One of the UK’s most inventive songwriters, Jim will release a still-to-be-titled new album later this year. In the meantime, you can stream the clean version of ‘2020 WTF!’ below.

Of the new single, Jim Bob had the following to say: I wrote 2020 WTF! at the end of 2019. Back then I made an educated guess that the things that seemed so awful and negative – terrorism, war, knife and gun crime, school shootings, toxic masculinity, polarised opinion on social media etc – wouldn’t miraculously disappear with the final bongs, fireworks and boogie-woogie piano notes of the New Year.

So I took a punt and included the song in what will be my new album (out later this year). I’d always planned on releasing 2020 WTF! as a single around about now. Little did I know how lacking of a third verse it might end up sounding. How elephanty in the room it is. But the sentiment in the song remains the same. Uplifting and moving songs at difficult times are great. ‘Imagine’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ do their trick just fine. But sometimes what you need is 26 seconds of punk rock discombobulation and despair to scream at the wall.

Take care.

Jim Bob x

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For those currently missing the opportunity of going to gigs and/or fancies a little bit of recent nostalgia, a full review of Jim Bob’s live set at Shepherd’s Bush last December can be found here.