OR   Search for Artist/Title    Advanced Search
 
you are not logged in...  [login] 
All Reviews    Edit This Review     
Review: 'MG BOULTER'
'With Wolves The Lamb Will Lie'   

-  Label: 'Harbour Song'
-  Genre: 'Folk' -  Release Date: '29th January 2016'-  Catalogue No: 'HSR012'

Our Rating:
Yes, MG Boulter is back with another belter of an album of Essex estuary folk even if this time it's been recorded in the current musical hot bed of Yorkshire and Sheffield to be specific.

The album opens with Sean Or Patrick, a bewitching song about an Irish drunk having reveries of being Hemingway and slowly drifting off until he's buried over a gentle lilt.

In Sight Of The Cellar may sound quite jaunty but the lyrics take you on a dark journey as he sells off his possessions on a Sunday morning. This is a doleful rumination set against the wonderfully upbeat-sounding music and makes for a cool contrast.

His Name Is Jean is a song about his son who he only sings about twice a week. It's slow and allegorical and examines the balance of work, life and family with some beautiful strings and Lucy Farrell's cool backing vocals.

Carmel Oakes is a sad little tale played at a slow ponderous pace as you wonder if Carmel Oakes will stay in this world or leave for the next. It's stirring and thoughtful.

Lalita is a stark tale of falling in love with a cleaner who is working here even though she hasn't got the right papers. It also takes in other tales of the desperate underclass and it's a very cool and thoughtful song that should make us all think about the issue of migration. It also has some wonderful strings and a very restrained bass part.

The Last Song is nothing of the sort but is a rather jaunty outing. It's also far faster than everything preceding it and has a wonderful finish. It's followed by The Defeatists Hymn: a good rumination on what we have lost in the last few years. MG's vocals are full of feeling and poignancy for what has already gone.

Someday The Waves is the song that reminds me most of MG Boulter's first album, The Water & The Wave, but that might just be the imagery of the water and the waves. Either way, it is almost a solo effort over carefully picked acoustic guitar as the waves engulf him. Brother Uncles, however, is more of a brooding slow rumination on bucolic adventures in the forest that goes off deep into the woods as it builds. It's a magnificent song.

MG Stays in the forest for Starlings, a song that starts as a barely there early morning strum to tell its bewitching tale. It gently builds as the woods come to life once more. As he goes deeper into the woods, he meets his Love Trees in the form of Lucy Farrell. Beauty is around them and subsuming them in this lovely cocoon.

The mood isn't broken on Let Light In as they stare out to sea having found the peace from the sea once more. It's mellow and relaxing, gentle and peaceful music to envelop you before slowly fading out as you gently go to sleep.

You can find out more of how MG Boulter can mellow you out here:

MG Boulter online
  author: simonovitch

[Show all reviews for this Artist]

READERS COMMENTS    10 comments still available (max 10)    [Click here to add your own comments]

There are currently no comments...
----------



MG BOULTER - With Wolves The Lamb Will Lie