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| Track list: 1. New York Girls - Bellowhead 2. Willie Taylor - Heidi Talbot 3. Poor Wayfaring Stranger - Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson 4. Good Drying - Breabach 5. Now Is The Cool Of The Day - Coope Boyes & Simpson 6. Stick Stock - Emily Portman 7. Untitled Song - Adam Holmes 8. Belfast - Brian Finnegan 9. Hollow Point - Chris Wood 10. Queen Of Waters - Nancy Kerr & James Fagan 11. A Brother Slips Away - Richard Thompson 12. The Hornpipes Set - Moore/Moss/Rutter 13. Rock Of Gelt - Chris While & Julie Matthews 14. The Fiddlers' Bid Ode To Joy - Fiddlers' Bid Running time: 63 minutes Released: 2011 |
Well it has been over a week since I posted anything. A combination of being busier than usual and more tired than a very tired man have kept me away more than the hour-plus length of this disc and the fact it is more Folk Awards nominees.
I have just come off the back of a really bad Bloodbowl game - the sort where the dice stick it to you in turn 1 and carry on doing so for the whole game and need something positive so I come here to get into this. I see a number of things that I have duplicates of here, but far fewer than on the 2008 discs.
New York Girls sounds really bland on record. Really bland. I remember being underwhelmed by it when it was released as a single, but enjoying it a lot when seeing Bellowhead live and, yeah, that is borne out here. It goes because it is a duplicate; (the album version will be kept despite it not having the same verve as it does in person, the protection of favouritism or something. The again, maybe I'll ditch that idea by the time I get there. Heidi Talbot does not sound like I would have imagined from her name. I do not really know what I mean by that, but I think I was expecting something fuller or sound, heavier of voice. I do not much like the flighty song sung here. The voice does not quite do it for me and the cadence of her singing is a little too predictable and made for swaying from side to side for my taste. It could just be the bitterness of a wasted evening though.
Oh my, that is a darker start than anticipated. I have the album that mother/daughter pair Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson released, and I can hear the song in my head before the singing starts, but I did not recall the broody start to the tune. I do rather like their harmonies and the grim nature of the performance here. I really should think about adding this to a playlist for the game I am preparing but then again that would take away from the actual preparation. So does writing this post instead of writing up characters and motivations. I need to get that done this week, especially as I may lose access to the software I am using to do my relationship maps. Yup, the fact I am going to be running an RPG again for the first time in a while is a big contributing factor to not being creative here - and the post-apocalyptic Celtic fantasy future Britain setting (Albion, which I may have linked here before) is ripe for this kind of British folk music.
I have no idea who Breabach are, but... oh dear, bagpipes. Jigs, OK. Knowing that I can put the right face on and once you are used to the idea they are not so offensive but it has to be said that pipes are polarising and very easy to dislike on initial exposure. Now that I have adjusted I rather like the cut of their jib, the form of the tune works well, nice hooks, good structure and a reasonably concise tune. It is followed by another lot I know nothing about, but am immediately struck by. Harmonies, harmonies, harmonies. These guys can really sing. It is a shame that there is nothing much of interest behind them - a really dull rhythm, no tune - but I suppose that might risk overshadowing or detracting from their vocal performance which is stunningly good. The song itself I could take or leave but the impression is made. The same is true of the next track. This is a much weirder collection of songs and tunes than 2008 (the inclusion of Tunng there aside). I am not sure I would ever want to listen to Stick Stock by choice but I am glad that I have now heard it, it's really interesting. There is a harmony here, but I cannot work out if its achieved by one person and a recording or not (a quick Google suggests no).
I am amused by the fact "Untitled Song" is the title of a song put up as typifying someone who was up for an award. It shows either a real lack of creativity, an insouciance at formalities, or a poke in the eye at the nature of these collections. Or something else entirely. This is a less striking song, pretty dull to be honest. One dark voice and a strummed guitar, the components are as standard as they could be, and it simply falls flat for me because neither is virtuoso in quality. It goes. Replacing it, pipe jigs - but not bagpipes this time. I do struggle after a while to tell tunes like this apart - they merge into a generic Celtic-flavoured country dance medley in my mind with every other reel that I have heard, fiddle or pipe-led, but I do not mind that. Dance tunes always speak more to my hopes and wishes and mental pictures than anything else, not least because I cannot dance and am far too inhibited to inflict an attempt to on anyone. In my head, though, I can retreat to somewhere my feet are as fast as the fingers of the players and imagine that I am not stood or sat on my own, looking or listening in. It speaks of a lifestyle that appears achingly beautiful from the distance I perceive it, but which would not suit me one iota were it actually in my grasp. That is far too depressing a sentence for the tune I have just heard, but it fits much better in tone with the song that has just started, Chris Wood's Hollow Point, which I have on his 2010 album Handmade Life so I do not need to keep this one too. The song is a reference to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by the Met, a tragedy of the counter-terror age. Wood's song was acclaimed; he has the gravitas to pull it off, although I think it is easier to say that 5 years on.
The next offering lightens the mood, but it does so with a duet that is just a little too bland for me. No interest in the music, and nothing compelling about the singers. I imagine that this would be very pleasant from a live stage but as the clock turns 22:00 on a cold winter's night in front of my laptop not so much. Richard Thompson's effort is a little sedate and delivered in a Leonard Cohen-lite kind of way. It does not work for me. The set that follows is more appropriate for the turn of my mood - a bit more pace, feels like it is driving towards the end as I am anticipating the end of this disc and the post to go with it, allowing my mind to skip forwards to the thought of sleep. Well, I was until the set transitioned and completely changed the mood in a way I really do not think worked, oh well. It recovers a bit but then slows right down again. That is the last thing I want and I find myself liking most of the set but still being about to ditch it for tonic dissonance. The disc seems to be ending with a whimper as the penultimate song is also pretty indistinct; nothing to latch onto and adore, just the march-like procession of a dreary rhythm and a boring song. It lifts a little when the pipes arrive but too little too late. It really is the drums that kill interest in this one.
Finally getting to the end now and I am a touch disappointed that The Fiddler's Bid Ode to Joy is not immediately recognisable as a fiddle rendition of Ode to Joy sped up immeasurably to make it more jig-like. I do like this though, it takes a bit for me to warm up to it but it builds enough body to be interesting and keeps a high enough tempo for me to close my eyes and let my mind drift off to less isolated situations again. It is a better end to the disc than I was expecting after disliking everything else since Hollow Point in some way or other. Could have done with a better conclusion to the track but hey.
So one post in 10 days; not good enough - must try harder.
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