After his previous solo LP, 2019's The Route to the Harmonium, filled with experimental instruments, the Scottish singer-songwriter releases another beautiful LP of intimate, rich, wistful songs with new collaborators. Rich in acoustic sounds alongside the guitar, from strings to flute and brass, and his sensitive, fragile singing voice, along with occasional backing vocals, creates an expanded folk sound with elements of Van Morrison and Belle & Sebastian as well as Yorkston’s own unique exploratory depth. Overall, like its title, it is filled complexity and depth, tranquility and sudden swells, but also flows along so naturally.
Yorkston is old friends with Swedish musician Karl-Jonas Winqvist, who alongside the rest of the The Second Hand Orchestra, recorded these songs over a few sessions in Stockholm. Every song is rich in structure but trips along easily and beautifully. The song Struggle is the standout number, but seems to pour out of each performer seamlessly. There Is No Upside, and the gentle A Droplet Forms are two other favourites from this album, but all eight over its 40 minutes are variously gorgeous ballads and songs of sweet sadness. Out on Domino. The album and other work by James Yorkston can also be enjoyed at and bought from his Bandcamp page. https://jamesyorkston.bandcamp.com/album/the-wide-wide-river
Feel free to also check out our favourite albums of 2020 here:
Fiona Apple to Lianne La Havas to Yves Tumor: favourite albums of 2020 – Part 1
Agnes Obel to Bob Dylan, Phoebe Bridgers to Sault: favourite albums of 2020 – Part 2
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