Apart from anything else this album is full of beautiful vocals; hop scotching between delicate love songs, gentle lullaby and sweet prayer, whilst all the while unravelling some damn fine storytelling and the quick wit of a campfire troubadour. Punchy instrumentals and sweeping harmonies seamlessly tie 'Strange Light' into a rather beautiful origami bowed package. All the while the simple, easy on the ear song structures subtlety show off a rather cleverly built tune with a fine grasp of emotion and a poetry that knows itself inside out.
But this isn’t an album to fall asleep too, with all the action of that old folklore runaway train, you'll find your feet tapping along to the rhythm of a beating heart chasing its lover down the 'Milwaukee Road'. This is traditional folk as traditional as modern folk allows; telling tales and falling in love and then losing it all to a one legged man with no teeth and a government hell bent on war over monopoly. Ok, not quite the monopoly...or the one legged man, but the tales and the love are both true.
David Berkeley conjures something rather special between the beating snares, mandolins and trumpets with a voice that has a staggering ability to draw you into whatever story it finds itself telling, be it in the opening bars of 'Hurricane' or the staccato power chords of 'Sweet Auburn' his voice carries you through, from beginning to end on a wave of tremendous sound. Lovely- jubbly and soft to touch, like a comfortable pillow or your favourite sweater, 'Strange Light' is a safe listen but all the more worth it for that very reason, sometimes brilliantly simple is…just that: brilliant. Simple.
David Berkeley is playing the electroacoustic club, London, on Monday 22nd September; it’ll be his only London show for quite sometime so don’t miss out. ‘Strange Light’ is currently available for download, along with the ‘After the Wrecking Ships’ and ‘The Confluence’ albums, on itunes. General release date is yet to be confirmed
Posted In Album Reviews, Sep 19 2008.
Words - Rebecca