Ruth Blake - 'Brave Ships' single review

 

The temptation to make comparisons between one singer and another is always there for a reviewer. It’s an easy way to give the readers a point of contact with the music, but it can often sell the artist short. One review of ‘Brave Ships’ compares Ruth Blake to Dido and Jewel which does her a definite disservice. She is far more than the anodyne pop-folk of those two singers. It also takes the focus away from her words. I doubt I’m the first to make comparisons with another Blake, William's, writing but the imagery of ‘Brave Ships’ does feel as if it comes from another better age.

Blake says that the lyrics started from reading Clarissa Pinkola Estes ‘Letter To A Young Activist During Troubled Times’. The message of that piece “Do not lose heart. We were made for these times” runs through ‘Brave Ships’ “Feels like I’m trying to bail us out with a teaspoon. But it’s not just me, there’s a whole fleet coming up behind and it’s what we’re here for”: “We are brave ships sailing the wide waters of the unknown”.

This is a larger production than her previous albums. Produced by Damien Mahoney of Caulbearers, whose single ‘Over Comes A Cloud’ Blake also features on. The string trio lends the feel of an ocean swell, and the rhythm section lock into a subtle groove that helps a near seven-minute song pass in a flash. If you need a musical reference point then Joni Mitchell is the obvious one, although Blake’s voice is closer to Joan Baez and Judy Collins. This is a far more contemporary sound than she has produced on her previous albums. The “B” side ‘I Am’ is a remastered version of a song from her last album ‘Creation’. That and its predecessor ‘Lullabies for Grown-Ups’ would make great purchases for the first Bandcamp Friday of the year on 5^th February. In the meantime, ‘Brave Ships’ is a compelling statement for early 2021 and could well end up on best of lists in 11 months’ time.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

The video that accompanies the single is worth a watch too…

 

The Weather Station - single review

Tamara Lindeman, otherwise, The Weather Station, has been pigeonholed in the folk world so far despite regularly pulling in elements of indie pop, and other sounds. Having signed with Fat Possum records she has taken the opportunity to make a sharp turn in her sound. 

Saxophone is the dominant voice, and the washes of sound that have characterised her work (particularly on the album Loyalty) are supplied mostly by organ rather than strings or acoustic guitar. Far more percussion heavy than much of her music, 'Robber' could be the work of Mazzy Star, Radiohead or even Cowboy Junkies in places. The sound is more unsettling than her previous work and of the video, her first as a director, she says “From an emotional and mood standpoint, I wanted the video to feel like how 2020 does to me; steeped in a sort of omnipresent unease and a threat of distant violence, even as life goes on”.

Watch it a few times and then buy the single, and I’m sure I don’t need to say do that from Bandcamp.