A welcome return of the Swedish based sextuplet West Of Eden for this, their seventh album. On hearing the first bars of the opening track “Haul Away” you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d just walked into a session with Fisherman’s Friends such is the force of the multi-layered wall of sound. The lead vocals of Martin & Jenny Schaub and the texturally sublime instrumentation including fiddle, guitars, accordion, bass and percussion bring vividly to life reflections of a life based at sea. And that, of course is the whole point of this project…songs and tunes with a nautical flavour. The recent popularity for all things nautical based will see this CD sit nicely in a market place that even the great Gareth (We Are Not Worthy) Malone has found irresistible and by the very nature of titles such as “Safe Crossing”, “13 Knots” and “Waiting For The Storm” will focus your attention much like the aroma of a good fish and chip supper. Drawing on sources including The Waterboys styled “Coffin Ship” and even a Vladimir Cosma sounding “Wrecker’s Weather” with its evocative use of brass band arrangement you’ll soon forget that the lyrics are jointly the work of the Schaub’s and not ‘trad arr’. Unlike most artists West Of Eden trawled (sorry about that) painstakingly long and hard in his research on the subject of all things ‘sea’ based and the result is a recording that should be admired by an audience further reaching than its ‘folk’ heritage should allow. This recording would make an outstanding contribution to any folk-rock collection and should rightly take its position on your shelf of the genre…surely an act of Cod!
PETE FYFE
Artist Web link: www.westofeden.com
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