Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl: Two
Dream away with Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl on their maiden collaboration.
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Sunday, 03, Feb 2008 01:00
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In a nutshell...
Gentle, therapeutic, dreamy/sleepy, vocally-driven
What's it all about?
Two is the maiden project of two folk artists who have pooled their talents for an experiment in simplicity and tenderness. Simplicity on the technical side: the album's 13 tracks were written, recorded and mixed in just two weeks; and simplicity in musical terms: Kathryn's hushed vocals need only compete with gentle rhythmic acoustic guitar, occasional light strings or woodwind, and Neill's periodic harmonies. The album starts and ends in a whisper and 13 tracks flow into one another, avoiding anything abrasive enough to wake you from its luxurious slumber.
Who's it by?
Kathryn Williams is the better known of the 'Two'. Previous solo album Little Black Numbers brought her a Mercury nomination, and her soft and sometimes haunting style has since won further critical acclaim. Meanwhile Neill MacColl has built a sound reputation for the guitar and vocal skills inherited from first-rate musical heritage: his parents are none other than folk legends Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. Neill met Kathryn at a BBC Folk Britannia concert where they were paired together for a rendition of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, a ballad written by his father for his mother. They decided to record together on a whim - and the upshot turns out to be a pairing of accomplished, like-minded artists. "The way we write and play together is like we're both steering the same ship," Neill said.
As an example...
"Tomorrow we're strangers going nowhere/Let's capture this feeling and drink it down before it goes." - Before It Goes
"Taken by the tide way out to sea, past the friends that we used to be." - Come With Me
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Unlikely to feature unless an award is introduced for album most capable of massaging the audience into sleepy submission. Not experimental enough for recognition.
What the others say
"They have recorded a gentle, intimate album filled with breathy and exquisite songs, which would be a major triumph if only there was just a little more variety in the mood and pace." - Guardian
So is it any good?
Two would be a good album to fall asleep to, but is dreamy rather than boring. Its continuity reflects a commitment to its over-arching theme: "how to capture a moment before it is lost forever". And getting their message across for Williams and MacColl means intimately traversing the little sights and sounds that become powerful when immortalised in the whispering fragility of their melodies.
Come With Me implores its listener: "Come with me darling/It's nearly morning" and the warm simplicity of Williams' appeal is irresistible. The slowly rising vocal scales of Before It Goes perfectly complement the theme of trying - maybe in vain - to rekindle a tender memory and lock it away for good. The focus is only shifted by Innocent When You Dream - a Tom Waits cover - and the broodier musings of Grey Goes.
By no means is it an album for all moods: Two will provide no answers for people seeking to be jolted to life. Instead it will enshrine moments of peace of mind, and is the musical equivalent of a gentle massage at the end of a day. It is about accepting the mindblowing power of life and resolving merely to catalogue it, not to fight it.
The rippling warmth of MacColl's acoustic guitar is reminiscent of Iron and Wine, while the vocals are as soft and echoey as Bonnie Prince Billie. As such, its appeal may be confined to the same niche. Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan captured a similarly majestic calm in debut album O, but their acoustic duets allowed anger and frustration to rear their heads, bringing a wider range of listeners into their folky web. The same can be said for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who combine with both tenderness and intensity in the soundtrack to motion picture Once. Williams and MacColl are by no means out of place among their talented acoustic contemporaries, but deal in different shades rather than different colours.
7/10
Nick Jacobs
"Good review, sensitive to the point of the album, I think." - Simon Thomas