“Words
lose their meaning at five in the morning,” says Scottish singer-songwriter
Roddy Woomble
at the beginning of
new album Listen To Keep. “It feels
like everything you say, you’ve said it before.”
Woomble has definitely said a lot in
his time. His musical career already
spans the best part of a dozen albums; seven as the frontman of Idlewild, a
rock band whose sound was once described by NME as “a flight of stairs falling
down a flight of stairs”, along with two previous solo outings and a handful of
collaborations with other Scottish artists.
With Listen To Keep, though,
it seems Woomble may have a lot more to say.
The album opens with ‘Making Myths’,
a cautiously melodic piece that touches on Greek and Biblical mythology. It’s
immediately clear that Woomble isn’t constrained by the shackles of genre;
whilst rooted in Scottish folk, he isn’t afraid to experiment a little –
although some of the vocals are a little out of rhythm in the verses. The
blending of genres continues with ‘Trouble Your Door’, a country-esque piece
that almost seems reminiscent of old men with banjos and rocking chairs on
porches. As with many of Roddy Woomble’s
songs, it’s hard not to tap your toes along with it. However, the chorus mainly
consists of the song’s title sung in repetition – which feels like a bit of a
letdown after the promising opening.
Title track ‘Listen To Keep’ is one of the most interesting and experimental
on the album. A low brass resonance and a piano accompaniment are slowly joined
by Woomble’s vocals as the song begins. Melancholy and ghostly, the tone rises
and falls in time with the chorus, closing with a progressive build up of
instruments that borders on orchestral.
The quieter tracks on the album are
by far the best, such as ‘The Universe Is On My Side’, a harmonious voyage
through corner bars, anthologies and corpse revivers. Woomble almost seems to
whisper the lyrics at the start of the song, and the pace slowly builds to the
close – although the song never loses its composure. ‘Into The Distance On
Luck’ also stands out; a delicate piece evoking feelings of solitude and wide
open spaces. Lyrically, it’s one of the strongest on the album, with gems like
“Luck loves only you/ and no-one relies on luck quite the way that you do” and
“You don’t just write, you wipe the inkblots from your eyes”. The chorus is quieter, with the instruments
pausing for breath as Woomble murmurs the words; the melody resuming as he
falls back into the verses.
Some of the faster, more energetic
pieces make their mark too. The final chorus of ‘I Know Where I Went Wrong’ is
an extended version of the previous ones; with Woomble singing louder and the
instruments barely able to contain themselves, slowly winding down to silence
like an exhausted runner at the end of a sprint. ‘The Last One Of My Kind’ is a
vigorous, yet curious song; one of those rarities where the verses outshine the
chorus, leaving you unsure of whether or not to love it.
Closing track ‘Time By Time’ is by no means a
bad song, but doesn’t live up to the same standard as that of previous albums –
2006’s harmonic album closer ‘Play Me Something’ and 2011’s hauntingly
beautiful epilogue ‘Between The Old Moon’.
Some fantastic lyrics, though (“Eternity... it’ll make a talent show of
history”), do a lot to redeem it.
Roddy Woomble may claim to know
where he went wrong, but with one exception – the discordant three-minute
‘Treacle & Tobacco’ – it’s easy to see that Listen To Keep has very few major flaws. Instrumentally pleasing
and lyrically fascinating, it hardly seems like the product of someone who
first broke onto the stage almost two decades ago. Rather, it seems like the
sound of a musician finally finding their niche.
‘Listen To Keep’ is available now on
Reveal Records.
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