While the Anglo-Irish Roots-Rock scenes have produced a fair yield of fine records over the past decade or so, this reviewer has heard little from the European continent to suggest similar endemic movements are alive and well.
Thus, the arrival of LOWLANDS is very welcome indeed. Although based around British-born singer/ songwriter Edward Abbiati, this Roots-Rock conglomerate hail from the Italian town of Pavia outside Milan and have been establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with over the past couple of years. Their debut album ‘The Last Call’ picked up a decent amount of critical acclaim and more recently a five-track EP ‘Vol.1’ cemented the positive reaction.
The band’s impressive workload has brought them a number of well-respected friends along the way and the band’s second full-length outing ‘Gypsy Child’ features cameos from Tim Rogers (You Am I), in-demand Atlanta session man Joey Huffman and Green on Red/ Steve Wynn alumnus Chris Cacavas who also took on mixing duties.
‘Gypsy Child’ suggests their talented friends’ faith is entirely justified. It’s an excellent showcase for Abbiati’s finely-honed, thought-provoking songs and demonstrates what an accomplished band he has assembled to realise them to the full. Although it’s easy to cherry pick Chiara Giacobbe’s majestic fiddling and the expressive flash of Roberto Diana’s lead guitar, the whole band turn in sympathetic performances and have the ability to Rock out or ease up as required.
Abbiati’s songs come from the blue-collar school of hard knocks and he delivers them in a gravelly, lived-in fashion akin to Jeff Tweedy or a more dog-eared Ryan Adams. Anthemic tunes like ‘Only Rain’ and ‘Life’s Beautiful Lies’ (“I was always blessed, kissed by death/ I surfaced from darker waters”) are restless songs full of chequered pasts and uncertain futures, while the full-throttle swamp-rocker ‘Gotta Be (Something Out There)’ (“I hear ghosts late at night calling me away/ I smell the road, feel the wind/ I ain’t ever going back”) may be more Gun Club than Bruce Springsteen in execution, but could still be Abbiati’s very own ‘Born to Run.’
|
Perhaps more interesting, though, are the songs where Abbiati deviates from the tried and tested Country-Rock blueprint. With its’ dusty vocals, rippling piano and twilit accordions, ‘Cheap Little Paintings’ speaks of the transience and randomness of existence (“like unsent letters and silent telephones/ they linger on, never leave you alone”) and could almost be Berthold Brecht. ‘He Left’ is an intimate acoustic confessional (“I think all he left was a short note against the photo of his wife”) which either relates to suicide or a Reggie Perrin-style disappearance and its’ starkness is palpable. The album also signs off in fine style with the sweet and mournful ‘Blow, Blue Wind Blow’ where Abbiati and guest Amanda Shires indulge in a fragile Country-Folk duet.
There’s the occasional less-than-essential moment. Wordy lyrical spews and cramped arrangements mar ‘Between Shades & Light’ and the busted romanticism of ‘Street Queen’ especially, although the balance is righted by the dramatic, self-lacerating rage of ‘Without a Sight’ where Abbiati rages (“like all those things that could have been and shall never be!”) against what Winston Churchill called “those infernal ‘ifs’” in life.
‘Gypsy Child’, then, is a very good, going on inspired sophomore effort. The European Roots revolution continues and Lowlands are proudly marking out their territory within those boundaries. If they can continue in this vein, America may be waiting with open arms.
Lowlands online
|
