The likeable Brighton string-led collective return with their first studio LP in nearly 13 years, a wordplay-rich, drily humorous, catchy, poignant collection of vivid storytelling via chamber pop and indie folk. The covers’ wind-battered hawthorn tree, photographed at Cuckmere Haven in the Sussex hills, seems to encapsulate the struggles and survival of the album’s theme, bending but not breaking in adversity, interweaving hope, desperation and humour. Singer and lyricist James de Malplaquet, along with the rest of the band, interplay with contradiction and irony, laughter and tears across a wide variety of moods. Ballad of Young Finn is a jaunty opener, then the catchy Crows imagines a dystopian scenario in which the clever corvids are running things. But then another quietly acoustic single, Glue, is a heartfelt number inspired by the death of James and partner' Sarah’s first son, Kit died at 13 days after being born in 2017 (“They said I should stick to you like glue / After what the two of us went through”), a song that musically manages to lift spirits as it progresses, even though repeating these lyrics. Other highlights included Everything Bright And New, the hushed If Only, both of which feature guest Alabaster de Plume on saxophone, FHS, Quietly, the wistful shrug of Probably Will (“If something can go wrong before too long it probably will…”) and among others, the final Poem For Suzanne. Sometimes reminiscent also of Irish band Villagers, mood-shifting between upbeat-downbeat, amusing yet emotionally tragic, richly nuanced, subtle in detail. Also appropriately out on … Rags To Ruin Records.
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