It’s the Welsh National Anthem but not how you’ve ever heard it before

The final song on Welsh musician Simon Love’s new album ‘The One True Prince Of Wales (in exile after abdication)’is a full-blown rock version of ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’

Sung in Welsh by Love’s all-English band evoking the spirit of a full-throated football crowd and culminating in a big psychedelic-rock outro.

Originally intended as tongue-in-cheek, Love discovered the song’s power while learning it. He did some research which led him down a rabbit hole where he discovered the story of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (Llywelyn the Last), the last Welsh Prince of Wales, who was decapitated by the English in the 13th century – his head sent to London with a crown of ivy as mockery.

As Love explains, “His headless body was later found in Llanrumney Hall which is down the road from where my aunt Susan lives. We used to drive past it every time we went to her house.”

The London-based but Cardiff-born songwriter’s fourth studio album is an old-fashioned pop record chock full of love and cynicism, weaving his singularly offbeat observations with more serious subject matter as he grapples with grief, displacement and the pull of home.

The former frontman of John Peel and Marc Riley indiepop favourites The Loves, Simon Love mines an eclectic blend of vintage pop with a mix of straight-ahead rockers to Beatles-esque pop, and country-tinged laments with psychedelic flourishes, inspired by Nick Lowe, Randy Newman, Elvis Costello, The Kinks, The Flaming Lips and Silver Jews.

The album’s gloriously idiosyncratic title was coined shortly after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, where there was a debate in the news about whether Prince William should get the title of Prince of Wales, despite not having been born in Wales.

Simon was playing a gig in Swansea around that time and he was asked how he should be introduced – “Simon Love – the one true Prince of Wales” he quipped. But what began as a joke became something more profound as Love found himself writing repeatedly about his time in Cardiff before his 2009 move to London and an increased longing to return to Wales following the death of both his parents during and after the Pandemic.

“During Covid, my mother died and because I was 100 miles away with no way of driving myself to Cardiff without potentially exposing myself to the virus, I was unable to be with my family to grieve.” Love explains. “This further amplified my desire to be back in Wales. If only for a bit. Then my father died in late-2023 and I spent a month taking care of his funeral and generally being the person in charge of everything.”

The album’s emotional centrepiece “(feels funny) But I’m Getting Used To It” emerged from this raw grief. Love remembers the day at work when he used the phrase in an email about his father’s death, then rushed to the office toilets to hum melodies into his phone, “It’s about the weird game of hide and seek that grief plays with you. Sometimes you’ll be alright and then one thing will remind you of them or remind you that they’re not around anymore and you’ll be back to square one.”

For this release he is back accompanied by his band The Old Romantics which consists of The Loves’ Daniel Chapman on guitar, Ryan Cox from The School on bass, Mark West on keyboards, Ian London on drums and Alex Newton on trumpet.

Love’s storytelling remains sharp throughout. Whether recounting real-life confrontations with bouncers three times his size (“I’m Not Worth It”, co-written with Liz Hunt of The School/The Loves), taking savage aim at festival line-ups (“Green Man Blues”) or capturing the strange isolation of having a New Year’s Eve birthday – even if it is shared by Rita Lee of Brazilian psychedelic legends Os Mutantes (“Happy Birthday to Me (and Rita Lee)”).

“Everything is S4C” is a straightforward rock song featuring two (or three, if you count the change back) key changes and a middle 8 where the whole band chants “S!4!C!” while Love lists things he doesn’t like. S4C in this case stands for “Shit For C*nts” – although the C word is never actually mentioned on the album. Probably. “Come Out 2nite” was inspired by a text Love received “several hundred years ago” and starts with the dakdakadakadaka interference noise you used to hear in your headphones when someone received a message.

Then there’s “Us Against The World”, written after Love’s then 4-year-old son Joe claimed he had no friends at school. Love rushed home with a comic book, ice cream and a swiss roll to comfort him. The next day, while working from home, he wrote this big, stupid, sweary singalong. A week later at the parent-teacher meeting, the teacher looked puzzled: “I’ve seen him play with every single one of these children with no issues.” Joe shrugged and gave a sly smile. Love hasn’t trusted him since.

Recorded primarily with Jim Wallis (Modern Nature/Still Corners) at Big Limbo Studio in East London over two weekends in 2024, with additional sessions at Fabby Road in Glasgow with Joe Kane (professional Paul McCartney impersonator and kingpin of The Poppermost band), the album features guest appearances from ex-Love members Liz Hunt and Jenna Love, Pete Gofton (ex-Kenickie’s Johnny X, who describes himself more as a “pedal steel owner than player”) on “Green Man Blues”, saxophonists Kyle Forester(Woods/Crystal Stilts) and Matt Bauder (Arcade Fire, Iron and Wine), and writer Andy Miller intoning Phillip Larkin poetry.

The One True Prince of Wales (in exile after abdication) finds Simon Love at his most vulnerable and honest, channelling personal loss into a collection that spans joyful pop, biting social commentary and heartfelt tribute. The album is a moving meditation on what we leave behind, what we carry with us and why your kid probably can’t be trusted when he says he has no friends.

Find Simon Love at the following places:

https://simonlove.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/simonloverules
https://www.facebook.com/SimonLoveMusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1vHfS4LS85rEY72z1RjUu8