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Organ Grinder Press - interviews and reviews
Fireworks Night: Friends of the Heroes webzine review of 'It's A Wide, Wide Sea'.
Apr 13, 2005 |
Sometimes, music that at first seems unpenetrably dark can turn out to be more uplifting than you ever imagined. On the face of it, 'It's a Wide, Wide Sea' is full of doom; the refrain of opener 'The Gold Leaves' laments "there will always be a blackness to consume us"; song titles like 'The Shiver in Your Bones' and 'Something Like a Trembling' hint of a haunted house within; James Lesslie's vocals accentuate the eerie, deserted fairground mystique created by some evocative music.
As the journey continues, it seems no light is going to appear at the end of the tunnel. The ghostly theme is developed further in 'The Silhouettes Attack!', choppy, stilted accompaniment intensifying the gloom. Minimalist 'Tied to the Moon' signals a brief lightening of the mood, but it's not until well after 'Long Time Healing' that you realise there could still be a happy ending here.
On its own, penultimate track 'A Picture Worth Framing' is a plaintive, charming ballad. In the context of what has gone before it, however, it becomes positively celebratory. Its message completely alters the interpretation of dream-like farewell 'It's a Wide, Wide Sea'. That it may be, it says, but don't let it hold us back.
In this album, Fireworks Night send a clear signal: however dark it may get, if you work through the gloom you will emerge stronger. Not only that, they tell this story wonderfully well, incorporating any number of well-chosen influences into a melting pot which spits out something just a little bit different. It's a triumph for the carefully constructed long-player over the immediacy of a single. When the journey ended, I wanted to go again.
Written by Grant Lakeland for Friends of the Heroes webzine, April 2005. www.friendsoftheheroes.co.uk
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