The Daintees
– Haunted Highway (Barbaraville)
CD/DL
Out Now (ish)
The
legendary Martin Stephenson releases the new Daintees album.
Martin recently
claimed that he reckons Haunted Highway is the best Daintees album yet. That’s quite a bold statement from the man
who has such a huge back catalogue.
Sure, he will say every new album is his best, but he can genuinely say
that this new collection is up there. He
may be tired of hearing about Boat To Bolivia, but to be fair to everyone that
has bought it they will never be bored of its brilliance. If 2012s California Star was one of the highlights
of his career then Haunted Highway takes it to new heights.
If you’ve
never listened to any of his music then you’ve missed out. The Geordie is one
of Britain’s finest songwriters, ever.
Again, a bold statement but true.
His amazing talent to craft songs of every emotion and almost every
style is second to none. He is, my
friends, a musical genius.
Officially
released in February 2015, it will be available at some of his Xmas shows, and
why not make use of sell-out gigs annually held at The Cluny in Newcastle to
sell his wares? As album opener,
Stansted Ground mentions “I don’t really give a shit” he’s probably a bit of a
closet anarchist.
The album
opener is pure class in terms of song construction, melody and content. It’s an
instant toe-tapper and presumably written about a journey from home via plane
to meeting partner Helen McCookerybook. It’s affectionate, it’s pristine and it’s
classic Stephenson.
Much of the
album is classic Stephenson, second track Wishing Stone sees the tone move from
full band to lone acoustic guitar as he wears his lovely heart on his sincere
sleeve. Bliss. The first of two instrumentals, Mahina has
echoes of Hank Marvin in both style of construction recalling hints of the
cowboy West with well-timed drum and guitar breaks.
Hobo Trains is
textbook Country. June Cash would have been
proud to record this and if you try hard enough, you can almost imagine her
singing it with her yelps and whoops. Its rousing chorus is instant and
memorable and my six year old daughter went berserk at the drum interlude
provided by Martin’s sister Kate. The title
track remains with a Country feel too with Martin’s voice sounding as good as
it ever has – soft and gentle with every syllable perfectly recited.
And so the
album progresses, Black Eyed Rose could have quite easily been a part of Boat
To Bolivia. Another love song wrapped
around God’s Plan sees the band rock things up with an exciting feel and Johnny
Red heads to the return of another Hank induced instrumental.
Rockabilly-a-go-go
with Backhouse Tipping slowly brings the deceptively short album to an end with
more of the same. One of the many album
highlights is the incredible Let Your True Love Show, a simple reggae based
track which has some of the most subtle dubs and reverbs you will hear this
side of wherever. Maybe akin to Wholly
Humble Heart in feel and passion and echoing the dub sections of both that song
and Boat To Bolivia. It’s a lesson in
simple, classic song writing. A dub
album from the man would be something to savour.
Closing with
eleventh track Ride you can’t help feeling energised. Haunted Highway is the work of a man at the
top of his game after nearly thirty-three years as a recording artist and the
perfect album to discover the talents of one of music’s greatest modern day
talents before delving into his ample back catalogue.
If all this wasn’t
enough, the first three hundred copies of the album come with a twenty track cd,
We Are The Llama which features tracks from Barbaraville artists over the
years.
The
Daintees’ best album yet? Probably.
10/10
Links
Barbaraville Records
The Daintees website
Martin Stephenson on Twitter
Martin Stephenson on Facebook
California Star album review
Helen McCookerybook on hiapop Blog
10/10
Links
Barbaraville Records
The Daintees website
Martin Stephenson on Twitter
Martin Stephenson on Facebook
California Star album review
Helen McCookerybook on hiapop Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment