45 features 10 tracks, and dropped last week ahead of Donald Trump's UK visit. A press release describes the album as a "Donald Trump funk musical."
Speaking about the new record, Brewis says, "For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by US politics and that fascination became an obsession in the run up to the 2016 election. It really made me wonder as to whether I had any understanding of people whatsoever. It feels like Trump’s success has rendered in perfect detail every fault line in Western democracy - how profile beats policy, how corporate interests overwhelm the needs of ordinary people and how ethics and the rule of law are at the mercy of partisanship. To be honest, I could probably have written twice as many songs such is the wealth of scarcely believable material surrounding the Trump administration. It’s like King Lear populated by the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Here in the UK, I feel far enough removed that I can turn my revulsion into satire. I don’t think I could do the same with Brexit. It’s too close."
Brewis' inspiration for the record came from Otis Redding, James Brown, The Meters, Bob Woodward’s book Fear, Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, and articles from the Washington Post, The New Yorker and The New York Times.
