Edwyn Collins - Badbea (2019)

Having released his previous album, 'Understated', in March 2013, 'Badbea' is Collins' first release since moving both home and studio to Helmsdale on the North East coast of Scotland in 2014. Building a new studio from scratch, the impressive Clashnarrow Studios which sits on the hills overlooking Helmsdale, Collins completed work on 'Badbea' with co-producer Sean Read (Dexys, The Rockingbirds) and long-term musical cohorts Carwyn Ellis (Colorama) and James Walbourne (The Pretenders/The Rails). In part inspired by his return to the village where his grandfather lived, and somewhere Edwyn spent time over the years, the album title itself, and title track, are taken from and inspired by Badbea (pronounced badbay), a dramatically located abandoned village on a cliff top five miles north of Helmsdale with a history defined by the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries.