I was at a friend’s house when they put this on. Knowing I had a soft spot for acoustic music they thought I would find it interesting. I’d never heard of him and it seems, after some Internet searching, that Charlie Beresford has spent the last few years bubbling under the radar of the media and from what I can gather he has also been a backroom boy for the likes of June Tabor (folk diva famously loved by Elvis Costello).
Right form the opening ‘The Room is Empty’ puts its’ uncompromising edge to the fore, dispelling any drippy hippy preconceptions you may have in one beautifully discordant chord change. ‘If Only’ (the opening track) sounding very like a classical version of P J Harvey, moves along in a very free flowing manner an approach that is mirrored throughout the album. The lyrics are dark: painting images rather than telling stories; some of the images are disturbing and ask the kind of questions that will push some people away. This could be seen as the flaw to the whole album, many listeners not used to say classical music or the more extreme edges will find it heavy going at first.
In terms of songs ‘I let you walk with me’ requires a special mention as it falls out of the speakers of your stereo like water: it is beautiful and approachable. This can also be said of ‘This point here’ a fluid jazzy song punctuated by a tango like rhythm. From start to finish ‘The Room is Empty’ has a sense of foreboding that never goes away, beauty clashes with the sinister and it never really moves out of the shadows. As a result you need to leave yourself at the door and just let it wash over you.
In terms of the physical playing Charlie Beresford is a real singer and a guitar player of some stature. He has been described as a less angelic Jeff Buckley, but I think a hard-edged more capable John Martyn is nearer the mark. The other two musicians (Tim Harries on double bass and Mark Emerson on violin, viola, and accordion) haunt the music with insect like precision that can only be described as soulfully masterful.
This is a highly original work with no category to sit comfortably in and this no doubt will be its’ downfall. Too jazzy to be folk, to classical to be pop, and with no drums and keyboards rock’s out as well. The strange thing is that if the guitar was distorted this record would rock as hard as Tool.
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To call Charlie Beresford a singer songwriter is kind of missing the point, sure he writes songs and performs them but each of the pieces on this album are like small movies. From the press release on his website he is, “painter turned composer” and it shows. I will nail my colours to the mast and say that this record deserves more success than I know it will get. The hope is that it won’t remain hidden and that Charlie Beresford will suffer the indignity of obscurity while alive that so many other artists we take for granted now have.
To sum up, lovers of James Blunt, David Grey, Damien Rice and all, will probably not be able to cope with this CD. This isn’t pop as we know it. The Room is Empty has more to do with the German tradition of Lieder and Steve Reich than the given structures of songs in pop that we are used to. As has been said before, there are no drums, no keyboards, no break beats, and no crutches for the listener. In some reviews of this album this has been held as a criticism, but when did we all foist these rules on ourselves? I say so what, the playing is so good on this record why should they have slowed it down with such things. The depressing fact for Charlie Beresford is that this will stop some people from trying this out, but, to be honest, this kind of quality doesn’t come around very often. What is sad is that the likes of Charlie Beresford will probably never witness the success that the middle of the road has now got blasé with. The term genius gets banded around so often these days most of us have forgotten what the term means, but this is as close to a work of genius as you will find in this day and age, however flawed it may be. Long after the shambles that is Babyshambles, and the sad sight of Pete Doherty has gone people will be looking back on records like this and understanding that some people really did have something to say.
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