What a lovely little album this is. I say 'little', because it will only take up just over half an hour of your life to listen to it, but it is a beautiful collection of songs and a fresh mix of folk and soul.
'Nothing Gold Can Stay' is the result of a collaboration between Simone Felice from the Felice Brothers and Robert Burke. The songs are acoustic-led, mostly ballads but with soulful vocals carrying a hint of gospel. Whilst the music is light, the subject matter weighs heavy. These are songs of regret, sadness and loss but lifted by the hope that things will get better and a feeling of coming home.
Opener 'If You Ever Get Famous' sounds like a standard. A hushed lullaby urging the listener to remember their roots, it is delicate but catchy. 'The Morning I Get To Hell' is darker altogether but with a soulful, light vocal and a surprising but effective drum-led outro.
One of the standouts is 'Union Street' an acoustic ballad with a rambling lyric recalling childhood memories and hoping for a return to those days ("if I could just get to Union Street/ everything would be alright"). Towards the end of the record, a couple of truly lovely ballads, beautifully sung lighten the mood, 'Summer Morning Rain' in particular is as warm and bright as the summer day it describes. There is a darkness around this album though, that you only catch if you listen to the lyrics. Going off to war is a recurring theme as are death and loss. The lyrics are very direct and the listener sometimes feels that they are intruding on something private. The only time the music hints at this darkness is some guitar distortion on 'Lose Myself'.
When 'One More American Song' ends proceedings on a similar tone to the opening track, you get the urge to play the record again and delve deeper. You feel like you've listened to something extraordinary, yet on another level it is a breezy summer listen. It is an almost unique record, mixing soul and country in a way I've never quite heard before and adding in some hard hitting confessional lyrics.
Brilliant stuff.
9.0
['Nothing Gold Can Stay' is out now on Loose Records. The Duke & The King are playing some UK shows over the next few months]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment