In 2024, Saul Adamczewski had bottomed out. The co-founder of the infamously debauched Fat White Family had, according to a press release, spent “months in a cupboard in Tulse Hill amid severe psychosis and opioid addiction.” He called his mother, and with her help made it through withdrawal, got straight, reconnected with old friends and bandmates, and started making music again.
Saul was always the most pop-oriented member of the Fat Whites and took that sensibility even further with Insecure Men, the group he formed with Warmduscher drummer Ben Romans-Hopcraft. Their self-titled debut album was one of 2018’s best, but their sophomore effort was rejected by the label — which Saul has since admitted was probably for the best. Clean and sober, he reunited this spring with Romans-Hopcraft and members of Warmduscher, Mozart Estate, Primal Scream, and more to make the second Insecure Men record. It’s a very worthy follow-up.
Despite the clear-headed circumstances of its creation, “A Man For All Seasons” still has that swarthy, haunted last-call feel, mixing woozy lounge and VU chug with early-’80s mutant pop and Saul’s thoughtful, vulnerable lyrics. The new wave-y “Cleaning Bricks” might be the catchiest song he’s released with any of his bands, while the dreamy “Alien” and “Weak” rank among his most affecting.
He’s still capable of a good creep-out, too — the clanking, menacing “Butter” proves that. Saul has come out the other side with his wits, voice, and melodic instincts intact, and it’s great to have him back making records this good.
“A Man For All Seasons”, which is out this Friday. “I’ve had this song since before the Fat Whites,” Saul notes of “Cleaning Bricks,” the album’s new single. “Me and Nathan (Saoudi, Fat White Family keyboard player) had a job at Camberwell Grove where we used to have to go and wipe the cement off a huge pile of old London bricks. We’d just sing this chorus song about cleaning bricks. But over the years, people kept saying it was really catchy. I always thought it was a joke. Every time I’d see (producer and Speedy Wunderground label head) Dan Carey, he’d say: have you done that “Cleaning Bricks” song yet? I’m glad I did it because it sounds pretty good. It’s a pop song, it’s fun. I wanted it to be like Jessie’s Girl. Real cheese but good cheese.”
from the upcoming album “A Man for All Seasons” (Fat Possum)
Fat White Family co-founder Saul Adamczewski returns from the brink with Insecure Men’s beautifully haunted second act
The Fat Angel Sings 