#20
The Cream of Classicist Folk
We have never experienced a great deal of folk music here in Omsk. There was that small man with the stovepipe hat who used to wander from village to village with a guitar but whenever I saw him, he always seemed to be using it as a doorstop, or just to sit on whenever there were no seats left on the train. It was very unlikely that he could play it. Still, his “sitting down” sessions were very popular, and he became one of the most successful artists in the town, having cut no albums since his arrival. More power to him.
Folk music has enjoyed a re-emergence throughout the nineties, noticeable from the huge roster of singer-songwriters in the traditional mould who walk from land to land with nothing but a guitar in their hand and songs in their head. It was, of course, indie pioneers Belle & Sebastian who made it cool again.
After they dropped their trilogy of classic nineties albums on the world, Nick Drake was once again lionised for the forgotten genius he was, and soon everyone was locked away in empty, draughty rooms making wistful folk that conjured up lonely autumn afternoons in the sixties and the kind of nostalgic melancholy you can only sniff directly from the pages of Dickens.
Isobel Campbell was an integral part of this band, her violin skills often the standout highlight on some of the group’s most memorable moments, and she took quickly writing some of her own gentle pieces which were as strong as those of head honcho Stuart Murdoch. Her solo career began with side project The Gentle Waves who released two albums between 1999 and 2000, before she left the band properly to record the gorgeous Amorino with an Italian producer in 2003.
Her recent balladry with Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees obscurity was typically unconventional but the most successful record of her career, and in the spirit of such unconventional practice, she released this low-key folk paean six months later just to seal her reputation as one of the finest female talents of these times.
Milkwhite Sheets is dedicated to female folk artists such as Shirley Collins, Anne Briggs and Jean Ritchie, whom she quotes in the liner notes, and these tracks are almost all traditional pieces ,with one or two personal compositions which demonstrate her own unique ability. Some have complained about Belle & Sebastian losing the low-key and quiet pulchritude from their earlier albums, and likewise from Campbell’s own solo records.
This re-captures all of the picturesque and novelistic beauty of the early days of that band, while demonstrating how the genre it seems will never date; this folk is made with such skill and panache it all seems as timeless as those fine B&S records. The result is the best album from Isobel Campbell to date, and one of the finest secrets from late last year.
Willow’s Song (4:19)
The minimal nature of these pieces is their beauty, but the arrangements here are of equal import. Campbell is an extremely capable multi-instrumentalist, and one suspects she needs little of the many players here to assist her on this album, but they are effective and skilled pros all the same. Especially the likes of folk veterans Jim McCulloch and Margaret Smith who make flute, violin and guitar appearances.
This is a shimmering piece which starts with an eerie, trembling violin effect before building into a shadowy and mysterious little gem from the folk annals. It builds through its haunted and wraith-like lyrical phrases before the drums enter with the kind of drumbeat you would only expect from PJ Harvey in a song as hushed as this. Some harder acoustic guitars drive through the music towards the end, and it almost mutates into a lost B&S toe-tapping classic. The sound of a girl lost in the forest, searching in vain for some mysterious figure, before getting lost completely. An evocative and original interpretation.
Yearning (4:14)
A much more intricate and almost classical folk piece, this demonstrates more than any other tune on this album her complete mastery of the genre. More shimmering percussive accompaniment, including bells and glockenspiels, assist her through the scraping violins and her very shrill vocal parts, which sound as though they recorded about five metres away from the microphone.
This is her own composition, and along with the other two or three tracks she penned here, it fits in effortlessly with the originals. Her vocals almost sound tinged with a little Asian influence, as though she is being beaming messages from folk artists worldwide mid-recording. It is pieces such as this which put her on her a par with her idols Ritchie, Collins & Briggs. Glorious.
Reynardine (2:53)
One of the strongest traditional pieces here, this is perhaps the most wistful number on the album which Campbell describes as “the song of the fox.” Like the other most evocative tracks here, it revolves around just the acoustic guitar, minimal arrangements and the strength of her milk-white voice. It barely rises above a whisper here but it tingles with the gentle beauty and shimmers with the almost heart-breaking pathos of the original.
Cachel Wood (2:37)
Another of those slight but gorgeous little folk tunes, this ditty is wonderfully simple but also such a rich, delightful tune all the same. It is especially gorgeous towards the beautiful harmonies around the chorus: “Follow the bird to the sea, how my poor heart weeps for thee.”
Beggar, Wiseman or Thief (3:12)
Apparently inspired by a short story by Count Stembock, whomever he maybe have been, this is a very old-fashioned tune about a woman choosing a potential suitor to be her husband and again makes use of just an acoustic guitar and a deceptively simple chorus.
Thursday’s Child (7:12)
The lengthiest track on the album makes fine use of guest James Iha, who is no stranger to this sort of musical territory. Campbell was no doubt a massive fan of The Smashing Pumpkins and his own gentle solo record Let It Come Down from 1998. Sadly he has yet to write anymore material since the group disbanded, and only really crops up as a guest musician on albums such as this.
He contributes some juno keyboard and guitar, a style which is unmistakably his own, for what is quite a palliative and soothing denouement to the album. The track shimmers along for its lengthy duration, developing into something of a dreamy lullaby over the swirling and repetitive lines of keyboard. A little overlong perhaps, but a fine way to round things off nonetheless.
This is a clever record because it makes use of its instrumental tracks not merely as inconsequential filler, but as gorgeous pieces in their own right. All of the vocal-free pieces here seem straightforward tributes to Nick Drake.
Milkwhite Sheets is the shortest piece on the album, but also the most melancholy moment as well as Campbell demonstrates what the violin should be used for and how effective a tool of pathos it can be. James is credited as a tribute to guest contributor James Iha, who should be flattered since the track conjures up such Drake pieces as Cello Song or Bryter Layter.
What a tribute, indeed. Over the Wheat and the Barley also circles his memory with due deference. The non-instrumental Hori Horo seems to be a traditional piece from the Gaelic folk tradition, except the words remain in English, so maybe I have that entirely wrong. If only Brian L were here to clear this up…
Campbell is incapable of making any truly bad material under this harmless genre, although some may be unimpressed by some of the very low-key moments. The a cappella Loving Hannah for example, might not be for everyone given the fragility and slightness of her voice. That said, the lovely album opener O Love Is Teasin’ and the lighter-than-air Are You Going To Leave Me? should really present few problems unless you have been locked in a room with nothing but heavy metal albums and no soul for two decades.
Milkwhite Sheets is a non-showy album of subtle, perfectly crafted modern-day folk gems. I can heartily endorse it to all fans of early Belle & Sebastian, those au fait with Campbell already or those who love autumnal, beautiful and melancholy music par excellence from the voice of a gossamer-winged cherub.
Fly away with Isobel.
Rating: 9/10
The Cream of Classicist Folk
We have never experienced a great deal of folk music here in Omsk. There was that small man with the stovepipe hat who used to wander from village to village with a guitar but whenever I saw him, he always seemed to be using it as a doorstop, or just to sit on whenever there were no seats left on the train. It was very unlikely that he could play it. Still, his “sitting down” sessions were very popular, and he became one of the most successful artists in the town, having cut no albums since his arrival. More power to him.
Folk music has enjoyed a re-emergence throughout the nineties, noticeable from the huge roster of singer-songwriters in the traditional mould who walk from land to land with nothing but a guitar in their hand and songs in their head. It was, of course, indie pioneers Belle & Sebastian who made it cool again.After they dropped their trilogy of classic nineties albums on the world, Nick Drake was once again lionised for the forgotten genius he was, and soon everyone was locked away in empty, draughty rooms making wistful folk that conjured up lonely autumn afternoons in the sixties and the kind of nostalgic melancholy you can only sniff directly from the pages of Dickens.
Isobel Campbell was an integral part of this band, her violin skills often the standout highlight on some of the group’s most memorable moments, and she took quickly writing some of her own gentle pieces which were as strong as those of head honcho Stuart Murdoch. Her solo career began with side project The Gentle Waves who released two albums between 1999 and 2000, before she left the band properly to record the gorgeous Amorino with an Italian producer in 2003.
Her recent balladry with Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees obscurity was typically unconventional but the most successful record of her career, and in the spirit of such unconventional practice, she released this low-key folk paean six months later just to seal her reputation as one of the finest female talents of these times.
Milkwhite Sheets is dedicated to female folk artists such as Shirley Collins, Anne Briggs and Jean Ritchie, whom she quotes in the liner notes, and these tracks are almost all traditional pieces ,with one or two personal compositions which demonstrate her own unique ability. Some have complained about Belle & Sebastian losing the low-key and quiet pulchritude from their earlier albums, and likewise from Campbell’s own solo records.
This re-captures all of the picturesque and novelistic beauty of the early days of that band, while demonstrating how the genre it seems will never date; this folk is made with such skill and panache it all seems as timeless as those fine B&S records. The result is the best album from Isobel Campbell to date, and one of the finest secrets from late last year.
Willow’s Song (4:19)
The minimal nature of these pieces is their beauty, but the arrangements here are of equal import. Campbell is an extremely capable multi-instrumentalist, and one suspects she needs little of the many players here to assist her on this album, but they are effective and skilled pros all the same. Especially the likes of folk veterans Jim McCulloch and Margaret Smith who make flute, violin and guitar appearances.
This is a shimmering piece which starts with an eerie, trembling violin effect before building into a shadowy and mysterious little gem from the folk annals. It builds through its haunted and wraith-like lyrical phrases before the drums enter with the kind of drumbeat you would only expect from PJ Harvey in a song as hushed as this. Some harder acoustic guitars drive through the music towards the end, and it almost mutates into a lost B&S toe-tapping classic. The sound of a girl lost in the forest, searching in vain for some mysterious figure, before getting lost completely. An evocative and original interpretation.
Yearning (4:14)
A much more intricate and almost classical folk piece, this demonstrates more than any other tune on this album her complete mastery of the genre. More shimmering percussive accompaniment, including bells and glockenspiels, assist her through the scraping violins and her very shrill vocal parts, which sound as though they recorded about five metres away from the microphone.
This is her own composition, and along with the other two or three tracks she penned here, it fits in effortlessly with the originals. Her vocals almost sound tinged with a little Asian influence, as though she is being beaming messages from folk artists worldwide mid-recording. It is pieces such as this which put her on her a par with her idols Ritchie, Collins & Briggs. Glorious.
Reynardine (2:53)
One of the strongest traditional pieces here, this is perhaps the most wistful number on the album which Campbell describes as “the song of the fox.” Like the other most evocative tracks here, it revolves around just the acoustic guitar, minimal arrangements and the strength of her milk-white voice. It barely rises above a whisper here but it tingles with the gentle beauty and shimmers with the almost heart-breaking pathos of the original.
Cachel Wood (2:37)
Another of those slight but gorgeous little folk tunes, this ditty is wonderfully simple but also such a rich, delightful tune all the same. It is especially gorgeous towards the beautiful harmonies around the chorus: “Follow the bird to the sea, how my poor heart weeps for thee.”
Beggar, Wiseman or Thief (3:12)
Apparently inspired by a short story by Count Stembock, whomever he maybe have been, this is a very old-fashioned tune about a woman choosing a potential suitor to be her husband and again makes use of just an acoustic guitar and a deceptively simple chorus.
Thursday’s Child (7:12)
The lengthiest track on the album makes fine use of guest James Iha, who is no stranger to this sort of musical territory. Campbell was no doubt a massive fan of The Smashing Pumpkins and his own gentle solo record Let It Come Down from 1998. Sadly he has yet to write anymore material since the group disbanded, and only really crops up as a guest musician on albums such as this.
He contributes some juno keyboard and guitar, a style which is unmistakably his own, for what is quite a palliative and soothing denouement to the album. The track shimmers along for its lengthy duration, developing into something of a dreamy lullaby over the swirling and repetitive lines of keyboard. A little overlong perhaps, but a fine way to round things off nonetheless.
This is a clever record because it makes use of its instrumental tracks not merely as inconsequential filler, but as gorgeous pieces in their own right. All of the vocal-free pieces here seem straightforward tributes to Nick Drake.
Milkwhite Sheets is the shortest piece on the album, but also the most melancholy moment as well as Campbell demonstrates what the violin should be used for and how effective a tool of pathos it can be. James is credited as a tribute to guest contributor James Iha, who should be flattered since the track conjures up such Drake pieces as Cello Song or Bryter Layter.
What a tribute, indeed. Over the Wheat and the Barley also circles his memory with due deference. The non-instrumental Hori Horo seems to be a traditional piece from the Gaelic folk tradition, except the words remain in English, so maybe I have that entirely wrong. If only Brian L were here to clear this up…
Campbell is incapable of making any truly bad material under this harmless genre, although some may be unimpressed by some of the very low-key moments. The a cappella Loving Hannah for example, might not be for everyone given the fragility and slightness of her voice. That said, the lovely album opener O Love Is Teasin’ and the lighter-than-air Are You Going To Leave Me? should really present few problems unless you have been locked in a room with nothing but heavy metal albums and no soul for two decades.
Milkwhite Sheets is a non-showy album of subtle, perfectly crafted modern-day folk gems. I can heartily endorse it to all fans of early Belle & Sebastian, those au fait with Campbell already or those who love autumnal, beautiful and melancholy music par excellence from the voice of a gossamer-winged cherub.
Fly away with Isobel.
Rating: 9/10
1 comment:
I didn't know that this girl was the Belle and Sebastian girl. Never really bothered to look it up. B&S are one of my favorite UK artists. I can't really compare them to anybody else in the UK though. I love Placebo, Stereophonics, Embrace's first album, Radiohead, etc. B&S are far away in scope than any of them. Not necessarily better but awesome.
Definitely didn't know that she worked with Mark L. I hadn't kept up with him since the Trees. Man, I'm missing out on stuff I didn't know existed. Thanks.
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