The Legendary Pink Dots - The Museum of Human Happiness (2022)

“A cubicle for you, a cubicle for me….but not together…”
The Year 2020 was not a year for a band to 'get things together in the country', or gather in a room to write songs. This statement certainly applied to the Legendary Pink Dots with two members in The Netherlands and one in the UK.
The pandemic reared its ugly head as the Dots’ criss-crossed Europe on the second stage of their 40th Anniversary Tour.
Just a few days before much of Italy locked down the band was in Milan. A few days later, the destination was Cologne where they opted for a hotel in the countryside…it turned out that the resting place was one village away from the most lethal outbreak of the virus in Germany.
The tour eventually finished in a sold-out club with a worryingly low ceiling in London. There were hugs, a real feeling of togetherness with a truly lovely audience.
Then the World stopped.
It was the last time The Dots were in the same room.
Song writing and recording were necessarily deemed to happen in cyberspace for the rest of 2020 and 2021.
As a result, the lyrics are utterly poignant, desperate, yet sometimes bearing a flash of gallows humour. The soundtrack is a purging fire. It’s a fire that still burns, and as I type this I can say I have never been so excited about the impending release of a new Dots’ album.
Never mind the distance, there is a single-mindedness about “The Museum Of Human Happiness.” It’s 2022. We’ll meet again….EK