One of the undoubted joys of the CD era has been the re-issue policy of many record labels, offering to us for our listening pleasure hitherto little-heard gems of yore in abundance. Great and long out-of-print records re-released in the last few years include - Gene Clark’s 'No Other', Barry Dransfield’s 1972 eponymous album and Vashti Bunyan’s 'Just Another Diamond Day'. Now Ms. Bunyan returns after a hiatus of 35 years with a new album, the Robert Wyatt-y titled 'Lookaftering'.
'Diamond Day' has been acclaimed vigorously since its re-release by critics and musicians alike and it’s a joyous little piece indeed. One of the reasons perhaps for its belated success is its intimate and completely unselfconscious strangeness to contemporary ears – its difficult to imagine an artist today naturally arriving at the sound and vision achieved on that record, in this age of demographic led focus group rock where people like James Blunt, Dido and David Gray rule the singer/songwriter roost. And in an atmosphere like that Bunyan’s off-centre vocal style and subject matter was sure to sound like a breath of fresh air.
So the good news on this album is that Vashti has kept her highly unique voice intact – from the lovely opener LATELY to the closing track, the fragile yet uncontrived quiver that cast its spell so memorably still sounds as good, if not better than ever. There is a little more aged texture in the tone which is hardly surprising but there is no mistaking her distinctive delivery. In fact as comebacks go its hard to imagine a more successful one - 'Lookaftering' now joins fellow British singer Linda Thompson’s 'Fashionably Late' as one of the most welcome ‘long-time-no-see’ albums of the last decade.
Thankfully there has been no effort to update or modernize Bunyan’s trademark sound – no corny atmospherics or studio overkill. This isn’t to say that though that the album is an exercise in nostalgia, more that it occupies its own space and time uniquely like Nico’s 'Marble Index'. The arrangements weave their way around her voice impeccably and much kudos are due to producer Max Richter who along with Bunyan arranged the record. He has done as good a job on this album as Joe Boyd did on the last one and that is high praise indeed. The sound is warm, organic and betrays none of the heavy-handed production sheen that has dogged much British and Irish folk music since the 80’s. The only immediate studio trickery I can hear is in the backward chimes on HERE BEFORE. These are delicate and fit in flawlessly.
Lyrically however 'Lookaftering' differs from the earlier album in that many of the songs look inward rather than outward for inspiration. Whereas 'Diamond Day' had Bunyan ‘counting the waves in the bay’ and observing the external world around her here she looks within and writes of her own lived experiences. It is a record born out of a lived life and all the passions, frustrations, joys and sadnesses that that brings.
|
Selected standouts – WAYWARD - a song about the grief of motherhood and being left behind as the children leave home, which has some nice lyrical attention to domestic detail (‘Days going by in clouds of flour and white washing’) and some fine complementary guitar work (no idea who unfortunately – promo copy gives no details), TURNING BACKS - featuring a gorgeous arrangement with flute, shimmering dulcimer, oboe and piano, SAME BUT DIFFERENT - with its lush string backing and wave-like to-ing and fro-ing melody suiting the song's seafaring lyrics perfectly and the brief but moving BROTHER which describes going back to a place where childhood memories are strong and the place remains the same but a loved one is no longer present. Here Bunyan’s voice is recorded very up close and personal, sounding as if she was gently singing in your ear. Such subject matters may strike one as slightly mawkish as described by this humble reviewer but on record the effect rings straight and true.
The album ends on musically a more uplifting note with FEET OF CLAY again, a gorgeously realized piece of orchestral folk and the wordless ‘vocal-instrumental’ Wayward Hum where Bunyan’s vocalizations and barely heard whistling brings the album to a close (album closing instrumentals seem to be the order of the day for discerning artists at the moment - Richard Hawley’s 'Coles Corner' has one too. Does it all go back to Nick Drake and 'Bryter Layter'?).
So, in a nutshell, 'Lookaftering' in its humble 35 or-so minutes contains more beauty and wonder than a whole raft load of contemporary music released this year and I cant help but feel that in another 35 years a new generation of listeners will be rediscovering the joys of this and Just Another Diamond Day once again for the first time. And its got a really nice painting of a hare on the cover too. Welcome back Vashti – please call again soon.
|
