Tuesday 26 July 2011
Now I’m a believer
Mike Angus is one half of the songwriting team behind The Wheat Pool (alongside his brother Robb), but he’s taken a breather from the band lately to work on his first record of solo material. Hymns is named for the songs he learned as a child raised in a religious tradition. They were Angus’ “first musical education” and he says they “still influence the way I write”. You can hear the reverence to musical tradition in the way album opener “Be There (You Won’t)” builds through it’s chant-like repetitive refrain and the gospel-like harmonies that introduce “Oh Rodeo!” Angus wrote the material on Hymns while staying in a Tuscan farmhouse, letting the bombast and big sound of his band take a back seat to the quieter, more introspective sounds floating around his mind.
And what of those sounds? I’m in awe. Singer-songwriter albums cross my desk like a parade of ants heading to a picnic, so it takes something rather special to stand out from the pack; Hymns not only stands out, it floats above the rest. As I listened, falling victim to each song’s charms, I kept thinking to myself, “surely there must be at least one mediocre song on this record; maybe the next one will be only so-so”. Fortunately, that never came to pass. Angus manages a perfectly crafted record that ranges from the weepy crucifixion ballad “Gsus Minor” to the digitally developed “Scaffold Christ”. Religious imagery and themes weave their way through the album’s eight tracks but it never sounds oppressive or heavy-handed. Still, in just over 25 minutes and eight songs, Mike Angus has made me a believer.
Hymns is available now on Shameless Records. Honestly, if I could, I would send each one of you who asked a copy of this record, but I have bills to pay and a house to keep up, so do me and yourself a favour and go to the label’s store and buy a copy now. If you don’t care for it, I’ll buy off of you and take it door-to-door on a Saturday morning looking for someone who’ll see the light.
Mike Angus – Swallow It Whole by killbeat music
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 at 8:35 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
