ALBUM REVIEW: Widow Speak - 'All Yours'

Written for Middle Boop Mag: http://middleboopmag.com/music/music-news/widowspeak-%E2%80%93-all-yours-captured-tracks

Brooklyn label Captured Tracks duo Widowspeak, comprised of Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl, are set to release their third album ‘All Yours’ this September. It’s been over two years since their country-tinged EP ‘The Swamps’, which was a deliberate, “bridge toward a new sound”. 

Previous album ‘Almanac’ was recorded in an old barn in New York’s Hudson River Valley, and felt very much Mazzy Star meets Fleetwood Mac, with the natural world acting as its inspiration. Kevin McMahon of Lucky Pierre also leant his expertise on production, which compounded and complimented everything they were trying to achieve after losing a member of the band.

Title track ‘All Yours’ has the intrinsically delicate gossamer vocals from Hamilton,, the gentle twanging chords and lovesick lyrics are a nod to their country roots of Tacoma,  Washington, and are indicative of their slight veer in direction.  ‘Narrows’ is marginally melancholic, but on the whole the album seems to have twitched to a much lighter temperament, as though the fog has lifted.

‘Stoned’ has that Best Coast adolescent feel, a throwback, perhaps to their debut-country-psych roots.  ‘Girls’ is ridiculously countrified, with a harmonica loop and blues guitar background. Simplistic and beautiful lyrics with its coming of age overtones make this track easily one of the best on the album. ‘Borrowed World’ is a flourish of magic - an instant pleaser. Lead single ‘Dead Love (So Still)’ starts out in a quintessential Widowspeak-fashion, and then spirals into a psychedelic riff.

Widowspeak have gathered a tangible richness and depth to their sound as they have evolved, expertly harnessing and executing spine-tingling moments at every turn. ‘All Yours’ is consistently fresh, sharp and interesting. It's easily their best records and one of the most stunning albums you will hear this year. 

LIVE: Swim Deep @ The Roundhouse, Camden 22/10/15

Written for Gigwise: http://www.gigwise.com/reviews/103437/swim-deep-live-at-the-roundhouse-review

Brummy five-piece Swim Deep were born out of the B-Town wave that emerged in 2012, but were always slightly in the shadows of their contemporaries Peace. That being said, Swim Deep did form part of a bigger picture that, at that time, was hazy dream-pop at its best.

Two years on, Swim Deep are back, touring with new album Mothers, (an ode to, you didn't guess it, “the mother of the universe”). It's a startlingly different offering - less drizzly Brit-pop, more, in their words,”psychedelic sex music”.

Austin Williams and co emerged onstage to the Jurassic Park theme; a momentous entrance that reeked of confidence, albeit a necessity if they were to pull off this huge swerve in sound. The need to double-take was in order, it was Swim Deep... on acid, as it were, no more knock kneed indie sensibility, more space ships and holograms – an unbelievable transformation.

From the Human League frenzy of ‘Grand Affection’ to the sassy saxophone accompaniment on ‘One Great Song and I Could Change The World’, it was a bonanza, with a pirouetting dancer, no less, amid the stage for their epic new psychedelic trip of a song ‘Fueiho Boogie’, an eight minute long banger that has to be heard to be believed.

Swim Deep’s show was an absolute mashup of genres, managing to be ravey and retro all at once. With a few years on the scene and, (we could be forgiven for thinking) their fair share of opiates, it seems that Swim Deep have made a point of actively casting off the shackles of their B-Town routes, and in turn are shining in a way that we could never have anticipated.