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Guillemots – ‘Walk the River’ - The brand new
album out April 18th
Download single
‘The Basket’ on March 13th |
Guillemots are set to release
their eagerly awaited third album, ‘Walk the
River’ on April 18th on the Geffen label.
The four-piece of Fyfe Dangerfield, Magrão,
Aristazabal Hawkes and Greig Stewart have
delivered an album that’s as innovative as it is
classic - an astral triumph.
Following the Mercury Music Prize nominated
‘Through the Windowpane’ (2006) the top ten
‘Red’ (2008) and Fyfe Dangerfield’s acclaimed
gold selling debut solo album, ‘Fly Yellow Moon’
(2010), Guillemots recorded ‘Walk the River’
with producer David Kosten (Bat for Lashes,
Everything Everything) at Bryn Derwen Studios, a
converted country manor in the mountains of
North Wales.
The sessions gave birth to a startling marriage
of melody and atmosphere where layers of harmony
and other-worldly instrumentation give way to
fragile songs of hope and loss. Fyfe’s lyrical
visions of a lost, stranded soul in search of a
home lead a passionate and soulful band sounding
at times stripped to the bone, and at others
wildly ambitious and uninhibited.
‘Walk The River’ is filled with drama and
contrasts - creating its own universe which
seems both familiar and unexpected. Echoes of
Roy Orbison in a multitracked choir (‘Tigers’)
and psychedelic hints of the Righteous Brothers
(‘Sometimes I Remember Wrong’), line up
alongside the spiky energised pop of ‘Ice Room’
and the freewheeling chaos of ‘The Basket’, the
first single to be taken from the album
(available to download from iTunes on 13th
March, with impact date of 11th April).
The subsonic pulse and energy of ‘I Must Be
A Lover’ joins ‘Dancing in the Devil’s Shoes’,
which builds from an aching, fragile lullaby
into a majestic anthem.
Standout track ‘Vermillion’ opens with lo-fi
home-recorded acoustic strumming, but soon
morphs into a throbbing, interstellar slice of
Fleetwood Mac-inspired genius, laying the
groundwork for the uplifting but heartbreaking
‘I Don’t Feel Amazing Now’.
All the twists and turns of distortion, leaps of
imagination and boundless rhythms are shepherded
by Fyfe’s intense and intimate vocals, and the
sheer quality of the melodies and performances.
"The songs had to sound as if they were being
heard through the night sky", explains
Dangerfield, "sleepwalking their way onto tape.
But they also needed to survive on a piano or
acoustic guitar, and still grip you, still have
a rawness and directness that would move you
without relying on the arrangements. So it was
all about trying to attain this wonky balance of
sharpness and blurriness. We wanted to make a
record that would completely surround you as you
listened to it, fill you with warmth."
'Walk The River' is magical record, both
beautiful and bold - a troubled but determined
journey. Here is an album to hold close. |
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 The
'Walk the River' tracklisting is
1. Walk The River
2. Vermillion
3. I Don't Feel Amazing Now
4. Ice Room
5. Tigers
6. Inside
7. I Must Be A Lover
8. Slow Train
9. Sometimes I Remember Wrong
10. The Basket
11. Dancing In The Devil's Shoes
12. Yesterday Is Dead
www.guillemots.com
www.geffenrecords.co.uk
www.facebook.com/guillemotsmusic |
