Guillemots
Guillemots are set to release their eagerly awaited third album, ‘Walk the River’ on April 18th on the Geffen label.
The four-piece of Fyfe Dangerfield, Magrão, Aristazabal Hawkes and Greig Stewart have delivered an album that’s as innovative as it is classic - an astral triumph.
Following the Mercury Music Prize nominated ‘Through the Windowpane’ (2006), the top ten ‘Red’ (2008) frontman Fyfe Dangerfield released his acclaimed Gold selling debut solo album, ‘Fly Yellow Moon’ (2010) which featured his heartbreaking rendition of Billy Joel’s 1977 single ‘She’s Always A Woman’. (As featured in the John Lewis TV ad)
Returning to Guillemots, Fyfe and the band recorded ‘Walk the River’ with producer David Kosten (Bat for Lashes, Everything Everything) at Bryn Derwen Studios, a converted country manor in the mountains of North Wales.
The sessions gave birth to a startling marriage of melody and atmosphere where layers of harmony and other-worldly instrumentation give way to fragile songs of hope and loss. Fyfe’s lyrical visions of a lost, stranded soul in search of a home lead a passionate and soulful band sounding at times stripped to the bone, and at others wildly ambitious and uninhibited.
‘Walk The River’ is filled with drama and contrasts - creating its own universe which seems both familiar and unexpected. Echoes of Roy Orbison in a multitracked choir (‘Tigers’) and psychedelic hints of the Righteous Brothers (‘Sometimes I Remember Wrong’), line up alongside the spiky energised pop of ‘Ice Room’ and the freewheeling chaos of ‘The Basket’, the first single to be taken from the album (available to download from iTunes on 13th March, with impact date of 11th April).
The subsonic pulse and energy of ‘I Must Be A Lover’ joins ‘Dancing in the Devil’s Shoes’, which builds from an aching, fragile lullaby into a majestic anthem.
Standout track ‘Vermillion’ opens with lo-fi home-recorded acoustic strumming, but soon morphs into a throbbing, interstellar slice of Fleetwood Mac-inspired genius, laying the groundwork for the uplifting but heartbreaking ‘I Don’t Feel Amazing Now’.
All the twists and turns of distortion, leaps of imagination and boundless rhythms are shepherded by Fyfe’s intense and intimate vocals, and the sheer quality of the melodies and performances.
"The songs had to sound as if they were being heard through the night sky", explains Dangerfield, "sleepwalking their way onto tape. But they also needed to survive on a piano or acoustic guitar, and still grip you, still have a rawness and directness that would move you without relying on the arrangements. So it was all about trying to attain this wonky balance of sharpness and blurriness. We wanted to make a record that would completely surround you as you listened to it, fill you with warmth."
'Walk The River' is magical record, both beautiful and bold - a troubled but determined journey. Here is an album to hold close.
The 'Walk the River' tracklisting is
1. Walk The River
2. Vermillion
3. I Don't Feel Amazing Now
4. Ice Room
5. Tigers
6. Inside
7. I Must Be A Lover
8. Slow Train
9. Sometimes I Remember Wrong
10. The Basket
11. Dancing In The Devil's Shoes
12. Yesterday Is Dead