Whimsical, quirky and quintessentially English, Lifeline is Wreckless Eric’s hymn to seaside towns in general, and Eastbourne in particular.

Sung in a characteristically estuarine whine that hasn’t changed since we first heard him singing Whole Wide World in 1977, hearing Lifeline feels like the return of an old friend after years away. 

And in a way that’s exactly what it is. Because Eric Goulden has been living abroad – he spent the ’90s in rural France and has lived in upstate New York since 2011 – but his latest record has roots that go back far farther than that.

In 1985 Goulden released an album entitled A Roomful Of Monkeys on the Go! Discs label under the name Captains Of Industry. It was a disaster. No one had heard of Captains Of Industry and most people didn’t like what they heard, even though the band featured two Blockheads (bass guitarist Norman Watt-Roy and keyboard player Mick Gallagher). 

It was either ignored or critically slated – much to the chagrin of Goulden, who retreated to making home-made garage recordings under various alter egos: The Len Bright Combo, Le Beat Group Electrique, The Donovan Of Trash, The Hitsville House Band, and with his wife as Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby.

But its failure continued to haunt him. “That album has always been a regret to me because I think these songs mark my coming of age as a songwriter,” he reflects now. “But not, alas, as a recording artist.”

So now, 40 years later, he has decided to use those songs, written in the Medway Towns between 1982 and 1984, as the basis for a new album: England Screaming, adding wisdom and experience to the youthful ambition of the past.

“I felt liberated,” he declares. “My song writing took on an entirely different tone. There was no one telling me what I should be writing any more so I wrote about what was around me, stuff I knew about: drugs, home-ownership, bankruptcy and bridal wear; being from somewhere, keeping up appearances, delusion, failure…”

On the new recordings Eric played most of the instruments himself. Sam Shepherd played the drums, Amy Rigby and Marc Valentine sang backing vocals, and contributed piano along with Eric’s art school friend, performance artist Graham Beck.

I’ll confess I had not followed his career since the ’70s until a couple of years ago when he released a new album called Leisureland, led by a wonderfully quirky single called Badhat Town. I liked it so much I went to see him perform it live, at the recording of Later… With Jools.

This is a song to file alongside Kevin Coyne’s epic blues ode to the same seaside town, Eastbourne Ladies.