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| Track list: 1. The Fairy Boy 2. Alice In The Bacon Box 3. Maids When You're Young 4. Death (Rock Me To Sleep) 5. The Unfortunate Lass 6. Julia 7. The Two Sisters 8. Adelphi 9. F For Love 10. A Stitch In Time 11. Bricks & Love Running time: 46 minutes Released: 2011 |
So this is a recent purchase but not a new disc. It sneaks in the midst of the Ben Folds-a-thon (although its hard to really see it as that given the slow progress in getting through it) by virtue of being an A. I decided to pick this up recently because I needed a make-weight on an order to qualify for free shipping and I had picked up and seen promise in Silent Flame - which I bought following one of the Folk Awards albums on which she was showcased.
I am acutely aware that I have not made it to these pages for a long time - over 2 weeks now. Things have been busy between evening plans and the stresses of buying a new car. That all done with for the time being, maybe I will return to a more consistent posting schedule... but enough excuses, time to get listening!
I have been through this a few times on the commute (prior to the car change) so it is not a blind listen of a new purchase. However it is probably the first time I will hear it clearly, with no banging exhaust to cover it up. The Fairy Boy has a very soft backing that I don't think I had picked up previously, for example - a few sparse piano notes, a lightly droning string or organ of some kind, the latter so faint I really can't tell what it is. I like the song more like this - on a quiet evening at the end of a busy day. The additional structure works nicely to support Ward's voice, which has real potential even if it does not always deliver. There are hints of Kate Rusby in her tones and that is an apt comparison for the second track, which has a gentle roll to it that could be a Rusby song. Not so accomplished in performance, not trained and reinforced through years of grooving as Rusby though, but a decent showing which again, restored by the lack of growling engine noise, is much better than my first impressions.
This third song I don't like much. It has been a bit of an earworm for me in the last fortnight, most annoyingly so as it is one of those songs which employs too much nonsense in place of proper lyrics. I also don't much like the subject matter of what lyrics there are. It's a bloody catchy tune, but the charm is completely lost by the words that go with it. It also dominates my mental impression of the album so much that the next track feels unfamiliar, not heard before, even though I don't think I skipped a one over three journeys.
Death is a dark subject for a song given the subtitle implies lullaby. It isn't of course, a lullaby I mean. Actually its a pretty nice piece - there is an edge to it, a tone that sets it apart from the fare that has been before. The darkness is all in the guitar; the vocal performance does not carry such the same menace or, to be honest, interest. Ward was, I think, very young when this was released, and I think the lack of consistency is probably more a factor of inexperience than anything else. Yet at times her delivery is very mature, studied and impressive.
I am getting goosebumps listening to The Unfortunate Lass, though this is the side effect of bare arms on an evening where the warmth is starting to fade more than a reaction to the song. It is a slow number, a maudlin one, but it is a strong performance, even as the empty arrangement gives her plenty of chance to mess things up. The next piece tells a story that on the face of it tells of a young same-sex relationship, but maybe I am assuming the gender of the teller based on that of the singer (and writer, since this is a Ward original). If so, its a significant subject to take on, and personally I don't think that the song does it justice in a couple of ways. First I think there are some weaknesses in the structure of the writing and secondly I feel the performance is lacking. Where Ward can be strident, bold, here there is a fallibility in the voice which might be appropriate and "in character" for the song, but actually takes away from the experience to my ear.
Two Sisters is a more immediately enjoyable piece. The staccato playing here creates a crucible that sets Ward's singing on fire, the timbres of her voice really gelling with it in the early part of the track. It wavers a bit as the song progresses though, her voice flying higher and losing a bit of the connection with the arrangement and the dark subject matter. There is some really nice build/drop off in the playing here though, despite most of it amounting to repetition of the same loop it sets a fantastic tone. I think this is probably the best track on the album.
In to the last few now, and the song from which the album takes its title is about as uninteresting as anything here - it wanders all over the place, especially in the vocal, whilst the dominant strains of the playing are just... dull. Some of the writing is stretching it, too; it really surprises me that this prompted the title, but still. F for Love is deeply cynical, a darker view of the world than even I can normally conjure - and yet it is paired with a really light, soft-touch piano. It is an odd contrast and one that does not really work for me. I just glanced at the track lengths in WMP and I am surprised that most of the songs top 4 minutes in length because actually none of them really feel like they have that much to them in terms of heft and weight of lyric. I don't mean that as a criticism of the writing (there are points I might make there if I were reviewing), but as an observation that the pieces fly by quicker than expected.
A Stitch In Time is... ugh. A domestic violence story, it's not nice to start with and then answers violence with violence. It has a good outcome for those involved though, somehow. It is also a cappella and not great. At times Ward sounds like she's stuffed up with a cold. It is a memorable track but not a pleasant one.
We close with a more musical tune, but another one that feels light, empty. Missing something. I can see it being a pretty (if sad) song when watched live but on record it gives the impression that things don't quite line up. And just like that it is over and the room falls silent save for my laptop fan.
Two weeks, one post. Must do better. As for the album, there is more to it than I thought, but a lot of tracks, too, that feel weak. It is pretty obviously a debut, more raw and flawed than Single Flame I think. Identifying what to keep and what to chuck now, it may get gutted but not because everything that goes is bad, more that its weaker than similar stuff I have. Still, definitely some keepers too.
I have been through this a few times on the commute (prior to the car change) so it is not a blind listen of a new purchase. However it is probably the first time I will hear it clearly, with no banging exhaust to cover it up. The Fairy Boy has a very soft backing that I don't think I had picked up previously, for example - a few sparse piano notes, a lightly droning string or organ of some kind, the latter so faint I really can't tell what it is. I like the song more like this - on a quiet evening at the end of a busy day. The additional structure works nicely to support Ward's voice, which has real potential even if it does not always deliver. There are hints of Kate Rusby in her tones and that is an apt comparison for the second track, which has a gentle roll to it that could be a Rusby song. Not so accomplished in performance, not trained and reinforced through years of grooving as Rusby though, but a decent showing which again, restored by the lack of growling engine noise, is much better than my first impressions.
This third song I don't like much. It has been a bit of an earworm for me in the last fortnight, most annoyingly so as it is one of those songs which employs too much nonsense in place of proper lyrics. I also don't much like the subject matter of what lyrics there are. It's a bloody catchy tune, but the charm is completely lost by the words that go with it. It also dominates my mental impression of the album so much that the next track feels unfamiliar, not heard before, even though I don't think I skipped a one over three journeys.
Death is a dark subject for a song given the subtitle implies lullaby. It isn't of course, a lullaby I mean. Actually its a pretty nice piece - there is an edge to it, a tone that sets it apart from the fare that has been before. The darkness is all in the guitar; the vocal performance does not carry such the same menace or, to be honest, interest. Ward was, I think, very young when this was released, and I think the lack of consistency is probably more a factor of inexperience than anything else. Yet at times her delivery is very mature, studied and impressive.
I am getting goosebumps listening to The Unfortunate Lass, though this is the side effect of bare arms on an evening where the warmth is starting to fade more than a reaction to the song. It is a slow number, a maudlin one, but it is a strong performance, even as the empty arrangement gives her plenty of chance to mess things up. The next piece tells a story that on the face of it tells of a young same-sex relationship, but maybe I am assuming the gender of the teller based on that of the singer (and writer, since this is a Ward original). If so, its a significant subject to take on, and personally I don't think that the song does it justice in a couple of ways. First I think there are some weaknesses in the structure of the writing and secondly I feel the performance is lacking. Where Ward can be strident, bold, here there is a fallibility in the voice which might be appropriate and "in character" for the song, but actually takes away from the experience to my ear.
Two Sisters is a more immediately enjoyable piece. The staccato playing here creates a crucible that sets Ward's singing on fire, the timbres of her voice really gelling with it in the early part of the track. It wavers a bit as the song progresses though, her voice flying higher and losing a bit of the connection with the arrangement and the dark subject matter. There is some really nice build/drop off in the playing here though, despite most of it amounting to repetition of the same loop it sets a fantastic tone. I think this is probably the best track on the album.
In to the last few now, and the song from which the album takes its title is about as uninteresting as anything here - it wanders all over the place, especially in the vocal, whilst the dominant strains of the playing are just... dull. Some of the writing is stretching it, too; it really surprises me that this prompted the title, but still. F for Love is deeply cynical, a darker view of the world than even I can normally conjure - and yet it is paired with a really light, soft-touch piano. It is an odd contrast and one that does not really work for me. I just glanced at the track lengths in WMP and I am surprised that most of the songs top 4 minutes in length because actually none of them really feel like they have that much to them in terms of heft and weight of lyric. I don't mean that as a criticism of the writing (there are points I might make there if I were reviewing), but as an observation that the pieces fly by quicker than expected.
A Stitch In Time is... ugh. A domestic violence story, it's not nice to start with and then answers violence with violence. It has a good outcome for those involved though, somehow. It is also a cappella and not great. At times Ward sounds like she's stuffed up with a cold. It is a memorable track but not a pleasant one.
We close with a more musical tune, but another one that feels light, empty. Missing something. I can see it being a pretty (if sad) song when watched live but on record it gives the impression that things don't quite line up. And just like that it is over and the room falls silent save for my laptop fan.
Two weeks, one post. Must do better. As for the album, there is more to it than I thought, but a lot of tracks, too, that feel weak. It is pretty obviously a debut, more raw and flawed than Single Flame I think. Identifying what to keep and what to chuck now, it may get gutted but not because everything that goes is bad, more that its weaker than similar stuff I have. Still, definitely some keepers too.
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