A Roddy Hart and the Lonesome
Fire fan lives in me ever since I saw them a while ago as a support act at a gig and got
their album, Sign Language. When I
found out about the latest self-titled album to be released I was,
understandably, pretty chuffed! Surprisingly, the first listen of Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire was not
as brilliant as I had expected. When I listened again, however, something caught
me that hadn’t before. Perhaps I had initially been blinded by expectation, but
really, in this album lies a real emotional depth that truly charmed and moved
me. It is, in its essence, simply beautiful.
The first track, Days Are Numbered, sets the mood for the
rest that are to come. Firstly, it has a very strange yet graceful quality that
is hard not to fall for – something that I feel I have heard before in the
works of Muse. I really liked this about the song and the rest of the album
that follows in its footsteps. The second similarity between this and the other
songs on Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire,
is the intelligence that shines through the writing. The track is quite slow to
begin, and has a very gradual but obvious build up into something much more
intense. This was what drew me in. I felt I was being swept up in how the music
made me feel, and the build-up of the song just built up the emotion. I have to
say, on that second listen of the album, I had fallen in love by the end of Days Are Numbered.
Cold City Avalanche and Ghost
of Love both continue in the same vein, with some really sweet parts and
definitely a lot of feelings. The Big Jump
is very short, only being a minute and a half long. It is probably the only
track on the album that I would say is a little nondescript, though it does
have a lovely piano intro.
Adding a little vibrancy to Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire is a
little gem called Bright Light Fever. It
picks up the pace from the previous tracks and brings the mood up a little. I
really love it and would say it is my favourite of the record – it’s definitely
one to pay attention to.
There is a graceful track in High Hopes, some great piano mixing
things up in Queenstown and another
slightly more lively sound from Bad Blood.
The latter is a particularly noteworthy song that gets going a lot quicker than
most of the rest, and is somewhat rougher and heavier as well. To its credit,
the level of emotion in the lyrics and feel of the song are still right up
there at the top and this keeps the tone of the album wonderfully consistent.
Going back to the gradual
build-up format is Not Nervous Anymore,
followed by a couple of sweet and gentle tracks, including Forget Me Not, which is, in my opinion, the best on the album in
terms of lyrics: they are really quite enchanting and not something to be
ignored. In My Dreams I’m Always Losing closes
Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire with
moments of emotional brilliance, which is really quite apt for the album as a
whole.
Overall, I heard an album that
has been beautifully written and is clearly very meaningful. There is a
definite Muse-like resemblance in some of the music, but this is in no way a bad thing. It may take a few listens to truly get on board with
it, but when this happens, I have a feeling that Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire will not only be enjoyed, but be
truly loved.
Roddy
Hart and the Lonesome Fire's self titled album is out on 2nd September 2013 via Middle
of Nowhere Records.
EW
No comments:
Post a Comment