|
Richard
Warren's
new album The Wayfarer
Available on Vinyl, CD and Download.
OUT
NOW
'He's an accomplished guitarist wth an ear for the dramatic,
his elecrified country-blues
lines and slide guitar accompanied here by skeletal percussion
that sounds like
manacles rattling vainly.His vocals veer from 1950's crooner
to 1960's rocker -
'He's like Richard Hawley's accursed brother'
THE INDEPENDENT ****
'Twanging
like Roy Orbison and kicking up dust Gun Club style'
UNCUT ***
'Think Bon Iver 'For Emma Forever Ago' as reimagined by a
heartbroken
Rock and Roll desperado in 1958'
Album Of The Month THE CRACK
'One of the best albums of 2011, if not for a few years, listen
now'
MIDDLE BOP MAG
'It's a uniformally impressive collection in fact, but the
standout
here is easily the multifaceted tittle track, which unfurls
over 6
minutes from graveyard acoustic strum into an epic murder
ballad that
Nick Cave would be proud to call his own'
8/10 SUBBA-CULTCHA
THE WAYFARER
Warren returns with a new studio album 'The Wayfarer', released
on 17 October 2011
on TV Records, the follow up to his critically acclaimed debut
'Laments'.
Nine songs written and recorded in a cellar through the winter
of 2010. His most elemental
compositions to date, stripped to a brutally sparse frame
and occasionally decorated with
thunderous, Spector-charged arrangements, his newly cultivated
baritone slur conjuring
up
spirits of the death-balladeers of the Fifties."It's
a collection of raw sketches" explains Warren,
"I got tired of lengthy, expensive studio trickery, life's
too short."
Right from the opening, echo-soaked, garage-soul lullaby 'Rivington
Street', you sense
that Warren's view of the world is witnessed through a dim,
despairing eye rather than a rose-tinted lens. (This is reflected
in the wonderfully stark, monotone packaging.) At the record's
heart lies the title track, a three-part, epic protest song.
It drags us through some unfamiliar, driving folk-punk and
is full of the fire and working class pride which seeps into
the veins of the rest of this deep yet uncomplicated set.
Warren's 2010 debut 'Laments' was heartily received, the NME
stating, "It feels like Alex Chilton passed through the
studio on his way out of this world.". The good news
is that Alex is still here,guiding the low-down, blues-pop
of 'The Lonesome Singer In The Apocalypse Band' and
the rockabilly swagger of 'Johnny Johnny'. But this time round
he's also called in the ghost of Jeffrey Lee Pierce to approve
the heavy southern sway of 'The Willow' and 'The Backslider',
and the spirit of
Jimmie Rodgers to watch over the country-weepers 'Through
The Fire', 'Wasteland' and 'My Heart (Ragged And Broken)'.
Warren was born in a small mining town in the midlands of
England in 1973.Since beginning his musical career in the
mid 90s he's never had the opportunity to rest on his laurels,
and that's no doubt why his career has remained so mercurial.
From the dynamic power-pop of 'The Hybirds', to an ephemeral
burst of cult success as sonic explorer 'Echoboy', not to
mention a few revolutions of the planet as guitar-man for
hire with Spiritualized and Soulsavers (featuring Mark Lanegan).
He's been out road-testing 'The Wayfarer' live and the shows
have been described as "Lynchian", one reviewer
also commenting that they are the "songs of a man who's
seen it all and was largely unimpressed".
PLAY
The Lonesome Singer In The Apocalypse Band
|
