A quartet from Stourbridge comprising Julia Disney on keyboards, Odilia Mabrouk on violin, percussionist Lisa Westwood and Jon Hazelwood on bass and guitar with all three girls sharing lead vocals, they made their debut late last year with the Tapestry EP, their music variously embracing contemporary folk, classic Laurel Canyon vibes and Eastern European, the title track being a five and half minute fiddle and piano driven waltzing Weimar cabaret and Balkan cocktail with fairytale lyrics about the heart’s fateful tapestry. That’s reprised on Alder Grove alongside the dreamy piano-based, chorus cascading, lullabying ‘Broken Wings’, Disney on soaring lead, a song with a refugees hint about having to leave home and navigate life anew (“We were children fighting in your war/Far too young to leave the safe safe shore”) that sounds as though it could have come from a Willy Russell musical. Also resurfacing, again featuring Disney and also of a stage musicals bent is the jaunty ‘Love Is Fine’ aimed at telling depression and sadness (and anyone who brings you down) to bugger off (“There is just nothing left to say, so go away…All that you do is hold me back/And I’d like some time to/Fly, a while, without you, by my side”), and Mabrouk on lead, their eponymous, piano-based signature tune about mental turmoil (“the rush and the roll that’s inside of me/ Is the call of a siren’s warning”) and finding recovery (“I need to catch the rain and slowly find myself, again and again/Or soon I’ll lose a sense of where and when I am”).
It opens with the first of the new numbers, Disney on lead for ‘Sailor’s Tale’ which, with its jittery piano and swaying melody draws on familiar folk imagery of seeking adventure, here framed as a conversation between a young woman looking to see the world and a sailor who embodies her dreams of being carefree, who dispenses some wise advice: “He said only settle down/If that is where your heart is/But don’t let yourself drown/Don’t stop before you’ve started/Or you’ll only look around/Always hoping for excitement/And you’ll never leave this town/And you’ll never find your true love”. So, basically, follow your dreams, then rather than live with regrets. Keeping a maritime note, ‘The Sea’ with its rolling piano notes, percussion waves, whistle and slightly Eastern European tang mingled with a Pentangle spray has Mabrouk singing about how the sea brings out all emotions within us, their impact lingering even when we’re not directly embracing its power (“when I leave you are with me/I close my eyes so I can be/Closer to you the one I know/The inner music of my soul”).
Themes of escaping percolate the album, specifically so on the jazzy rhythm (a definite Brubeck touch to the bass) and pulsing folk colours of ‘Time To Fly’ with Disney on lead singing about leaving a toxic relationship (“Throw all you have at me I’m not gonna break/Wait for reactions well what a mistake/I’m done with your web of confusion and lies/I’m building a wall you see each day brick by brick/The more shit you throw at me the more the wall sticks”).
Mabrouk on lead and Disney on aching violin, things rein back in for the delicate fingerpicked title track, a close harmonies song about the calming and restorative power of nature amid life’s chaos “ever we’ll wander and ever we’ll meet, safe in the alder grove” while also sounding an environmental note about climate change (“A thousand joys are bearing me/Through verdant fields and cedar trees but all I can, think of is ‘when, will, I lose you’…Anger-weary overwhelm, trapped in a world-burning game, when will we love, when will we truly, care, for our home”).
There’s a jazzy waltzing Eastern European rhythm again for the near six-minute ‘Kings And Queens’, a social commentary protest song of sorts about the them and us divides in society (“For you are the kings and the queens, and we are the pawns, we’ll do as you say/What choice do we have but to play this old game, we’ve been here before, we don’t wanna play”) that then reverses the situation (“ if you get the chance to talk/Through muddy waters you’ll clumsily wade, our mind’s already made/For we are the kings and the queens and you are the pawns you’ll do as we say”). A few seconds longer with Westwood’s sole lead, ‘Ode To The Overthinker’ is pretty much summed up by the title (“There once was a girl with a busy mind/Filled with thoughts of every kind/She found herself to much frustration/In a constant state of contemplation/She’d start by thinking just one thing/But off that thought five more would spring/And each of those would spawn ten more/And none the same as the one before”) that concludes “Mindfulness is key, they say/Give me mindLESSness any day!”.
Disney’s final lead comes with ‘Keep On Walking’ which they says explores the experience of long and arduous hikes but that’s just a metaphor for persisting in the face of adversity (“my rucksack is heavy/From the weight of it all/And I’ll keep, keep on walkin’/In the hope that one day/A cool breeze from the ocean/Will come wash your shadow away…For the voice of the mountain/Keeps me sane, keeps me strong”).
Alder Grove ends with Mabrouk and the percussive strum, keys and chorus harmonies of ‘Time To Listen’, a song about taking time to listen yourself and your own needs and putting in some self-love (“When I was young I knew what I wanted/Guess I didn’t have a clue/Loving another would heal my heartache/Now I know that isn’t true/Started to do some digging, didn’t like what I found/Now it’s time to turn it around… This time I won’t be walking away/From who I really am”). Well worth getting a good soaking.
Mike Davies
Artists’ website: www.catchtherain.bandcamp.com
‘Catch The Rain’ -live at the Woodman:
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