Rating: 5/5
Review:
Very good
I am new to Ruth Moody's music but am very glad I discovered this album. It is very good, and parts of it are truly excellent. It is tuneful, well performed and is exceptionally well arranged and produced, making it a pleasure to listen to.
The album is pleasingly varied. Overall it has an Americana-type feel, but opens - courageously and very successfully - with Trouble and Woe, which sounds like a traditional Appalachian tune with banjo and minimal backing. This is followed in contrast by excellent One and Only, a beautiful, band-backed modern Americana song, and the shifting mood continues throughout - one of the album's great strengths.
Another great feature is the arrangements, which are brilliant in places. Often restrained touches add immense atmosphere and character to a song - the use of minimal strings on One and Only, and the couple of brief appearances of a Brass Band sound on the fabulous title track are a couple of examples. The musicians are uniformly excellent. Ruth Moody herself is a very good singer and musician and the rest here do her proud. They are technically excellent and get the feel of the music exactly right.
I have to say that not every track is a gem. I'm not bonkers about the version of Springsteen's Dancing In The Dark, and the closing track Nothing Without Love is a pretty ordinary song, but the good bits (which is most of the album) are really, really good.
I tried this album because Mark Knopfler makes a guest appearance (unmistakeably playing and singing harmony on the lovely Pockets). It has been a delightful discovery for me and I warmly recommend it.
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