Patrick Wolf Shares 'The Last Of England' Video
(ET) Patrick Wolf shares a new video today for 'The Last Of England,' a song that Patrick has described as his "national anthem" and opens with a sample of Aleister Crowley reading his sermon "The Great Beast Speaks". The video was filmed on location in Dungeness in homage to Derek Jarman's film from which the track takes its name.
The track is from Wolf's much-anticipated new album Crying The Neck out this Friday via Apport/Virgin Music. The set has already received great acclaim from the likes of MOJO, Uncut, Record Collector and more. 'The Last Of England' is the fifth song to be shared from the album after 'Dies Irae,' 'Limbo,' 'Hymn Of The Haar' and 'Jupiter.'
Commenting on the track Wolf says: "'The Last of England' is the third song on Crying the Neck, an album which I've realised now is a series of responses to loss, decay and death. Here, on this song, what I've been calling my own personal national anthem, is my investigation into the sense of loss of national identity and search for belonging and purpose in England that I observed across the country in the years after the referendum vote of June 2016. I saw how in many quarters of the country, groundswells of folk revivalism started springing up in the art and culture people were making and in others a descent into a desolate and patriotic ghost of the empire England. I wanted to write a ballad for this new chapter of the country, in compassion on the now again so small, disorientated island of Britain, wondering who and what it is anymore. It was originally a banger of a song and meant to be a dance track but at the last minute I stripped all the rhythm off the production to make this rightfully bleak folkloric anthem or hymn for England. The song is named after the Derek Jarman film, which I felt was a series of patriotic provocations and questions to the viewer and beautiful in the way it gave no answers or solutions. I was halfway through writing it when I wondered If I could finish a song which in many ways acts as a lyrical sequel or 21st century afterword to that great film, so I asked Tilda Swinton, the female protagonist of the film, if my lyrics were going in the correct, respectful direction and she gave her encouragement and blessing for me to finish the rest of the song as you hear it today."
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