Brillig - The Red Coats
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To be honest, I do not like shanties, and in fact, things presented by admirers of poetry singing passionlessly 500 kilometers from the sea, by the fire in mountains accompanied with a poorly tuned guitar. I do not want to offend anyone here, this is my personal aversion. So I had some concerns about turning on the last album from Brillig - The Red Coast - tagged as "folk", "shanty", "murder ballads" (that just caught my attention), "alternative rock", but it happened to be a nice surprise.
Australians, whose first album, in my humble opinion, was not most successful, apparently needed time, to match and this time they showed, what they can (hopefully it is not the last word from them!). The Red Coast is a very pleasant record, refined both in terms of sound and content. It is filled with melancholy, gloomy atmosphere, created by two vocals that well correspond (male and female) and a wide range of instruments such as the banjo, viola, guitar, autoharp, accordion, ukulele, harmonica, bass and of course the drums.
Music is a delicious complement, to what is at the heart of the album - ballad texts. Each of the story is told differently, and together they form a whole, from which emerges a coherent landscape of old, derelict, port towns. Grey sky and grey sea. Sailors who are forsaken, sitting in their desolate taverns accompanied by death, where everything steeps in the smell of alcohol, tobacco and fish. Small, shabby hotels, stale air, grey backyards, lost loves, lives lost in cards, loneliness leading to madness, bitterness that generates crime. That is the background of the tales told in The Red Coats. The vision is quite depressing, but the musical arrangement is not so dark. Some tracks are even though merry. Besides, as it is in ballads, terrifying things are told with a favor of sentiment, easy language, in a calm rhythm and gentle melody. I definitely like this dissonance.
It is worth mentioning, Brillig group provides their listeners not only the sound and lyrical experience. Their live shows are reportedly enriched with scenography and costumes appropriate to the musical content and they resemble theater spectacles. I hope, that someday Polish audience will be able to see it too.
Tracklist:
01. Death At Sea
02. The Red Coats
03. Bird From the Ashes
04. Assorted Fate
05. The Old Captain
06. The Frozen Lake
07. Intermission
08. Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
09. Jack Davey
10. Springtime in Kyoto
11. Phantom's Theme
12. Emily of the Grace
Australians, whose first album, in my humble opinion, was not most successful, apparently needed time, to match and this time they showed, what they can (hopefully it is not the last word from them!). The Red Coast is a very pleasant record, refined both in terms of sound and content. It is filled with melancholy, gloomy atmosphere, created by two vocals that well correspond (male and female) and a wide range of instruments such as the banjo, viola, guitar, autoharp, accordion, ukulele, harmonica, bass and of course the drums.
Music is a delicious complement, to what is at the heart of the album - ballad texts. Each of the story is told differently, and together they form a whole, from which emerges a coherent landscape of old, derelict, port towns. Grey sky and grey sea. Sailors who are forsaken, sitting in their desolate taverns accompanied by death, where everything steeps in the smell of alcohol, tobacco and fish. Small, shabby hotels, stale air, grey backyards, lost loves, lives lost in cards, loneliness leading to madness, bitterness that generates crime. That is the background of the tales told in The Red Coats. The vision is quite depressing, but the musical arrangement is not so dark. Some tracks are even though merry. Besides, as it is in ballads, terrifying things are told with a favor of sentiment, easy language, in a calm rhythm and gentle melody. I definitely like this dissonance.
It is worth mentioning, Brillig group provides their listeners not only the sound and lyrical experience. Their live shows are reportedly enriched with scenography and costumes appropriate to the musical content and they resemble theater spectacles. I hope, that someday Polish audience will be able to see it too.
Tracklist:
01. Death At Sea
02. The Red Coats
03. Bird From the Ashes
04. Assorted Fate
05. The Old Captain
06. The Frozen Lake
07. Intermission
08. Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
09. Jack Davey
10. Springtime in Kyoto
11. Phantom's Theme
12. Emily of the Grace
