W&H first came across fine, Americana-tinged Scouse quartet SPARKWOOD & 21 at one of Chris Stevens' great 'Hell's Ditch' nights in Liverpool several years back, so it's true that their début album 'By The Water's Edge' actually deserves the over-used epithet 'long-awaited'.
From what I can gather, the album took the best part of a year to make, being laid down at the house of long-time friend and producer Jeff Jepson. However, while the scrimping'n'saving DIY method may suggest intimacy (something 'By The Water's Edge' possesses in spades) it certainly doesn't equate with anything 'lo-fi' purely for the sake of it. This is an emotive, fully-rounded album, played with love and accomplishment.
Although certainly Roots-tinged, 'By The Water's Edge' is not really an 'Americana' album per se. The occasional song (especially the Gene Clark-ish 'Never Meant') has a fulsome Country-Rock feel, but often records from the poppier end of the American spectrum spring to mind in terms of comparison. Lovely, aching set-pieces like 'Heaven Only Knows' and 'To Be My Own' recall the crystalline melancholy of Big Star's gorgeous '#1 Record' while the album's most obviously upbeat pop track,'If Only Forever' recalls the brittle beauty of REM'S wonderful 'Murmur'.
Ultimately, though, the album's heart lies in its' brace of intimate, scarred ballads. Opening track 'Slip Away' is a gentle, elegiac, folk-flavoured song of love and loss with keening mandolin, subtly brushed drums and vulnerable vocals. 'Still' is a tender and ethereal glide full of dreams burning down and punctuated by surprise bursts of rattlesnake percussion and 'The Time It Takes' is a sparse acoustic reverie which the band gradually flesh out in their own time.
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Perhaps best of all, though, is the closing tune, 'Save Me', which, with its' “love, come save my soul” plea of a catchline is as sublime and redemptive as they come. I say 'closing' tune, but there's actually an un-named mystery track which is another stark ballad of soused in regret, heartache and alcohol. It's good, though I would personally doubt the wisdom of sequencing it after the soul-stirring 'Save Me'.
But that's only a very minor carp. Overall, 'By The Water's Edge' is an excellent, home-grown Americana-kissed treat and comes totally from the hearts of its' four protagonists. I believe the discerning out there will find it essential to keep it close to theirs in the months ahead.
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