Laura and Charlotte Carrivick are 21 year-old twins from South Devon who are full of sweetness and light. So much so that they even make songs about murder or suicide sound quite jolly and life affirming.
Their songs celebrate nature and the simple things of life which illustrate the fact that they aren't really made for these times. In If I Had Time, for example, they wistfully dream of slow back roads as an alternative to the speed and stress of motorways.
This is their fourth album and comprises eleven original compositions together with a version of the traditional song Early, Early In The Spring. It was produced by Kate Rusby's brother Joe at the Pure Records Studio.
Charlotte Dymond is a old style murder ballad where the killer recounts his crime as the gallows await. In Flowers With Jamie a lonely orphan girl works on a farm and falls for a hired man. When the cad gets her pregnant and abandons her, she kills herself rather than live in disgrace. Suffice to say these are not contemporary situations but, rather, songs which draw their inspiration from traditional folk songs and which are played in an old school style on bluegrass instruments: acoustic guitar, dobro, mandolin, banjo and fiddle.
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The title track is another story of doomed love - sung a cappella, it tells of a couple who plan to elope but whose escape plan goes awry. She is meant to leap from her bedroom window into a haycart but forgets that her father has moved her from her usual room and so jumps to her death. When her distraught lover finds her body he "swore he would not live for long". .
But, despite these tales of doomed love the album is far from being gloomy and fatalistic. The sisters resolutely keep on the sunny side with cheery and optimistic tunes like Today Is A Good Day , Now I Know and When The Birds Start To Sing.
It does occasionally stray into cloying 'hello birds, hello sky' territory but if you're looking for an pleasant, undemanding album with upbeat tunes about love and death you should check out this record.
The Carrivick Sisters' Website
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