I considered just writing this post without acknowledging the fact that we’ve not written anything on here for months, yes, literally months, but decided against it. You see, it’s not all been lying on the sofa in our underwear eating peanut butter kit kats, we’ve been doing other stuff (i’ve definitely written this before) and if truth be told, a bit underwhelmed by things to write about. A sweeping generalisation maybe, but it’s been coming for a while, and a good rest was hopefully all we needed.
It can be quite hard sorting the wheat from the chaff and in all reality, we simply don’t have time for all the wheat either. Metaphor ends. We hear good music all the time but find that moment or sound sometimes spoiled by trying to put it into words on here. Writing a blog and reading other blogs means that you are bombarded with such a massive amount of music, that you need time just to step back and absorb it (or avoid some of it) for the good of your health.
And now, I must get to the subject of this blog. This was an album which I received just as we’d taken what then turned into a two and a bit month hiatus. It was an album that I immediately downloaded and was really looking forward to, the only problem for me was, that it arrived during those isolated months where all I would listen to was the old favourites. This is no reflection on the music, just the loss of my excitement about new music.
We published a guest blog earlier in the week after I had seen the author write about the subject on Facebook and I started listening to that playlist on my iPod named ‘New stuff for listening’. The State Broadcasters were first up and it was a gem of a listen. I knew reading the press pack a few months previous that i’d like this, I just needed to get around to listening to it.
There are shades of King Creosote on opening track ‘The Only Way Home’ but it was ‘Trespassers’ jaunty waltz that got me tapping my feet. One of those songs that defines the sound of an album. ‘Kittiwake’ sounds like it has it’s roots firmly in the mid-west of America but the vocals and lyrics are unmistakably Scottish. It reminds me a bit of people like Sufjan Stevens and Andrew Bird.
The track
that stands out for me though is ‘This Old Table’. It’s one of those songs which I felt the impulse to repeat again and again. It’s a track laid bare with the drone of harmonium, a cluster of vocals and an emotionally poignant theme.
The more I listen to this album, the more I pick up each time. I don’t want all my listening to be groundbreaking or like nothing I have ever heard. There’s a lot to be said for a well written, well put together and musically good album and The State Broadcasters have got it on the money.
The State Broadcasters play Wellington Church Hall in Glasgow on Oct 21st, more details can be found on their website.
Ghosts We Must Carry is out now on Olive Grove Records and can be purchased here