I've been listening to a fair bit of Eagles' "Desperado" album this week as well as the new Radiohead marmite opus. Mixed in with blog pictures for the new Johnny and the Razorlights, there seems to be an increasing trend for anyone and everyone to go through a cowboy phase.

Certainly the Beatles had theirs around 1969/1970 when recording Abbey Road and promoting Let it Be (or being photographed in a park with cowboy hats on...) The new Razorlight clearly has somebody pretending to be a cowboy. When the second Raconteurs album came out (that sold about 5 copies), it was accompanied by cover artwork that depicted the band as a western saloon band. The Eagles seemed to base their entire career around it.

So why oh why do bands seem to think that rummaging around in the dressing up box, pretending to be Ned Kelly (*cough* Jagger *cough*) or some other misbegotten ruffian in a western (*cough* Dylan *cough*)? Surely times have pushed forward to the state where dressing up like an alien sex pest in the style of Bowie or a carnivore's wet dream like Gaga is to be praised? Its just a bit more inventive than simply donning a stetson, recording a muffled guitar and creaking for that good ole southern muzak realism, surely?

Maybe I missed the memo. I thought musicians liked to posit themselves as purveyors of the real. But dressing up like a cowboy to further your art when you're a Samaritans worker from Abingdon, or a former French school art student from Muswell Hill, is just a bit sad isn't it?