The Peach Tree, aka. Angus Maiden, possesses a voice that is the antithesis of auto-tune; the sounds you hear are what your average untrained 25-year old male larynx emits. There is plenty of failure here, he doesn't hit the notes, he can't sustain, doesn't project, and his attempts at different styles of singing such as death metal screams are pitiful. Yet in the voice's raw, natural, unprocessed essence there is an expressiveness that reveals a beautiful honesty akin to the lyrics and message of The Peach Tree.

Art is the pursuit of a perfection never to be attained. Through the past 15 albums and EPs The Peach Tree has attempted to show his inner world to the masses, and has failed on many accounts. The failure is what keeps him creating. The moment he produces something truly perfect is The End. Most natural deaths occur because a person has achieved everything they needed to in this mortal coil. When a consciousness dies a world dies, and Angus' world though still far from ending is nevertheless headed towards that inevitable, mortal demise. His whole life is a dress rehearsal for The End Of The World, the arrival at Perfection, in Nothingness, when the single consciousness that perceives the Universe subjectively ceases to be, and thus does the World cease to be.

Andy Warhol and the Pop Art movement, as well as the DaDa movement, showed us that anything can be Art. An exhibit in a modern gallery could be a glass case filled with kitchen cutlery. Once you label something as art it becomes art regardless of its content. The message here is that Art is in everything and we merely need to see it in a different context to appreciate it.

Is Angus' failure at expressing what he feels deep inside then, a form of Art? The first few words of the album title has two meanings: "Failure playing Art", as in a personified failure performing the role of Art, a metaphor for an elaborate showcase concealing something that is in fact amateurish. But it can also mean "an unsuccessful attempt at playing, or being involved in, this thing called Art". In the end, is it Art simply because Angus says it is, or is it indeed a true failure in its weak delivery? Is there such a thing as "bad Art" and "good Art", or do these polar opposites fade away as long as a message is conveyed? We can debate these things endlessly, but who cares because The End is Nigh, and this is the dress rehearsal for the Final Act. Ragnarok. Armageddon. The Apocalypse.