After a tempestuous early life, he began his musical career by performing at a memorial service for his dad, pub rock/new wave icon Ian Dury. He then produced a series of albums, beginning with 2002’s Len Parrot’s Memorial Lift, that balanced his deadpan vocals and debauched storytelling with subtle chamber pop arrangements and a nervy, modern new wave approach. By the time of 2017’s Prince of Tears, some disco began to slip into his sound as he cemented his place as one of the wittiest, most biting songwriters of his era.