Highlights: Grateful, Dearly Departed, High & Lonesome, Lady
Of The Lager
A mere month ago I was
gushing all over The Bitter Springs’ new album, and here I go again; Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark is the second
LP by that band’s Phil Martin. Basically, it is Everyone’s Cup Of Tea part three, in which the upbeat nature of disc
one is successfully merged with the more moody sounds of disc two to create
something equally charming, witty and eccentric. The sort of combination The
Bitter Springs have mastered so well.
Perhaps the first thing
that hits you when listening to Don’t
Be Afraid Of The Dark is how diverse the whole thing is. The rough-edged
melodicism of the upbeat and anthemic “Grateful” is rooted in punk, but for an
album that goes over an hour this is just a start. Quite effortlessly, the
record moves from funky to jazzy to music-hallish to god knows what else. The
good thing is that it rarely sounds patchy or all over the place – for all the
impressive style-hopping, I still hear a very focused and tight album, which
obviously underscores the quality of the songwriter we are dealing with here. The
instrumentation is also impressive and varied – with saxes, violins, electric and acoustic
guitars, harmonicas, pianos and even, quite inexplicably, some tap-dance (? –
in the wistfully catchy “Dearly Departed”) all coming into play when play they
must.
While I still can’t put
my finger on a few songs here (“Frontline” is lovely but underwhelming), all is
forgotten when I hear something as amazing as the beautiful, soulful six-minute
epic “High & Lonesome” that in all honesty beats anything the softer side
of Everyone’s Cup Of Tea had to
offer. The prize for the most confusing track of the album has to go to the
bizarre “Lady Of The Lager” which has that hypnotic groove you could hear on Brian
Eno’s brilliant Taking Tiger Mountain (By
Strategy). In fact, I can easily imagine the 70’s Eno singing this
one.
Don’t Be Afraid Of The
Dark is an extremely addictive album, one that is probably destined to be criminally
overlooked. Which, if anything, should make your listening to it even more special than it
already is.
8/10
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