ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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David Rotheray
THE LIFE OF BIRDS PROPER RECORDS 16.08.10 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk
With “The Life of Birds”, David Rotheray kick-starts his solo career in very good company; where you might imagine a solo album to be just the artist and a backing band, Rotheray’s debut reads like a rollcall of recent British folk artists. While he has written (or co-written) all of the tracks, he gets collaborators to take up the vocals, so maintaining an enigmatic background presence, hidden behind his guitar and pen. Rotheray’s choice to have differing collaborators for each song is very clever, as each track has an edge; stories are told in subtly different ways. The female vocals in particular are all in the same range, but add nuances to each story, so you move from the frailty of Bella Hardy on “Living Before The War” through the smoky, husky vocals of Eliza Carthy on “Cover Your Garden Over” and “The Road To The South”, to the younger, sweeter sound of Kathryn Williams on “Crows, Ravens & Rooks”. That’s not to say that the male collaborators are lacking. Alasdair Roberts’ vocals on “Draughty Old Fortress” transform a good song into one that really paints the imagery for you, his Scottish lilt adding that extra factor that’s needed to conjure up the isolation and fragility that the lyrics suggest. And Jim Causley’s voice on the first and last tracks, “The Sparrow and the Thrush and the Nightingale (parts 1 and 2)” fit perfectly with the upbeat, yet slightly scathing, allegory. For the record, these two tracks are my personal highlight. I have to admit that, while I love this album, the loose theme of birds that Rotheray aims for doesn’t really work for me – it’s more of a recurring theme. And to accompany this theme, we have the (perhaps inadvertent) co-theme of age and fragility, evident in tracks such as “The Digital Cuckoo”, which focuses on a technophobe scared of electronic alarm clocks; “The Best Excuse in the World (is the truth)”, which sees an aging man deciding on whether it’s too late to admit a dark secret; and the pairing of “Sweet Forgetfulness” and “Almost Beautiful”, which examine two different aspects of living with Alzheimer’s. It’s clear to see the thought and effort that’s been put into this album, even down to the sleevenotes. Where you tend to find clips of lyrics, or abstract images loosely related to the songs, the innards of “The Life of Birds” not only include the full lyrics, but an explanation about the meaning of them, giving a great insight into the direction of the tale. Purely for the collaborative impact and variation, I would have enjoyed this album, but the melodies, stories and downright uniqueness of it all elevates it for me. Sure, there are conceptual flaws, and some of the lines jar (the most noticeable involving a ‘pillow over the face’ in “Almost Beautiful”), but I am pleased to have discovered “The Life of Birds”, and strongly encourage you to do the same. www.davidrotheray.com |
