Some records don’t age- they resurface, louder and more resonant with time. ‘The Last Single Guy [Deluxe Edition]’ is one of those albums. With this reissue, Block reintroduces a pivotal chapter in his story and lets us see the scars and smirks of a moment when everything was unravelling, and the songs were all that held it together.
Long hailed as a cornerstone of anti-folk, Block was never just playing with conventions- he was tearing them apart and rebuilding something rawer, sharper, and more emotionally precise. ‘The Last Single Guy’, originally released in 2006, captured that ethos at full tilt: bittersweet, biting, and sonically fearless. Now, with the addition of three previously lost gems- ‘Hands Up’, ‘Cream Crackered’, and ‘Run Run Run’- the record feels more complete, more human, and somehow even more devastatingly relevant.
‘Hands Up’ is the standout here- part surreal highway hymn, part memory-scape, woven with echoes of childhood innocence crashing into adult disillusionment. There’s a beautiful friction in it: the late-night freedom of road trips clashing with the quiet weight of family, grief, and time. It’s the kind of song that slips into your bones when you’re not paying attention- simple in structure, layered in feeling. You hear the bond between bandmates, you feel the ache of loss, and you realise this isn’t just a track dusted off for nostalgia’s sake, it’s a moment worth reliving.
Thanks to the surgical touch of Blake Morgan on the restoration and mixing, these songs don’t sound retro- they sound immediate, alive. Nothing is sanitised. Every creak, every edge, every lyrical gut-punch is preserved and sharpened.
What makes this release hit so hard isn’t just the music- it’s the act of reclamation. Block is letting history breathe again. With each reissue, he’s peeling back the years to show us the raw truth underneath- the brilliance, the burn-out, the bruised beauty.
‘The Last Single Guy [Deluxe Edition]’ isn’t just for the longtime fans who’ve followed him from basement gigs to cult status. It’s for anyone who’s ever tried to make sense of their own past through melody. And it’s a reminder- in a time that often forgets- that some voices don’t just survive trends, they define them.