THE BOOKSHOP BAND are a singular entity, their concept like no other. When the little ensemble’s "Bring Me Back A Pyramid" album arrived back in 2016, yours truly wrote, “Literature’s always been a bountiful source of inspiration for musicians, but harnessing their ambition to a hushed sound of a library is a unique approach that sees this Bath duo explore a variety of worlds without leaving a room – just like any reader does. Ben Please and Beth Porter’s lovingly-packaged albums even feel like books or, given their periodic, once-a-month nature, magazines that detail secret musings of a sensual mind.” Slow-forward eight years, and the two BPs came up with what must be the darkest of their records, which is only logical given we live in the books-banishing times – and no wonder one of the tomes behind its songs was written by Margaret Atwood, one of the small collective’s fans. What doesn’t fail to surprise, though, is the name of a person who not only produced “Emerge, Return” – here’s the title of the group’s first platter to have a wider commercial release – but also plays on every track: Pete Townshend, he of THE WHO fame.
