While a fire in the belly generally denotes courage and determination, if the blaze is in the head it makes you think of some kind of brain fever.
In Berkeley's case this condition is surely brought on by lovesickness.
The singer-songwriter is a New Jersey native with a roving spirit and , on his fifth album, he sings plaintively of fragile barriers between him and the object of his desire. There are high hedges, walls of sand and houses of cards that all prevent him from connecting with what he yearns for.
The album title comes from a line in W.B.Yeats' 'Song of Wandering Aengus', a poem which ends which the much quoted couplet "The silver apples of the moon / The golden apples of the sun".
All eight tunes are sung in the first person in a pleading manner that makes you relieved that the total playing time is a relatively modest 36 minutes. Any longer and I have a feeling the laments would start to get on my nerves as he constantly implores A.N.Other to stay, to hold on not to go and never to give in.
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The album's brevity is explained by the fact that it was recorded in just two days in Chupadero, New Mexico. As you might imagine, the arrangements are simple and unfussy. Jordan Katz's trumpet playing on Oh, The Hedges Are High is the most radical touch.
The hint of self pity is unmistakable in songs like Shelter which opens with the 'woe is me' lines On my way back home, feeling so alone .......again. It's that final 'again' that hits home; implying that this singer is destined to wander forlornly without any great hope that the rains he prays for will extinguish the flames of his frustrated passions.
It is heartfelt stuff but by the end you will wish that the sun would shine just once to cure his tormented soul.
David Berkeley's website
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