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karinepolwart.com
Review by Jack Foster
Polwart's last album 'The Fairest Floo'er' was described
as portraying a "fireside intimacy", which it
certainly did - and 'This Earthly Spell' finds itself in
stark contrast, not only in it's slightly more contemporary
stylings but also with a noticably bigger sound. Opening
with 'The Good Years', an optimistic song based on a poem
by Edwin Morgan, it's catchy, toe-tapping, uplifting - but
probably not representative of the album, which treads a
fine line between traditional and contemporary extremely
successfully.
Karine's allegiances with the anti-war movement are well
known, 'Sorry' and 'Better Things' both attack a subject
popular amongst song writers. For a subject which it might
seem that every possible lyric imaginable has been written
a thousand times, Polwart's offerings are a fresh approach.
'Sorry' addresses the apologists for war and tyranny - specifically
those who hide behind religion (I wonder to whom she might
be reffering to). 'Better Things' was released on her website
last year, and as a result was one of the Garden Sessions
'Songs of 2007' - a beautiful and soaring examination of
human kind's abilities versus their actions.
The BBC's 'Scotland's Music with Phil Cunningham' contained
Polwart's 'Firethief', undoubtedly the high point of the
BBC series - the song is a poignant and emotional number
written initially for BBC Radio 2's Radio Ballad's, this
is another of Karine's songs which truly sounds as though
it was written many hundreds of years ago, even with it's
relitavely contemporay subject matter of HIV and AIDS suffering.
Karine refers to her albums as "a wee slice of time"
reflecting her life at the point of it's release, and the
birth of her first child last year is the inspiration behind
'Rivers Run'. The last song on the album is based on the
legend behind Scottish Borders poet Thomas the Rhymer -
'Tongue that Cannot Lie' is an atmospheric journey which
cannot fail to move. I do though, wish that I had never
lived on Easter Road in Edinburgh, as I can never hear the
chorus without being reminded of a particularly popular
football chant that was rather popular in that area.
I think it's safe to say this is Polwart's finest work
to date, and I've possibly said that before - but her work
only seems to get better with each passing year. This is
particularly encouraging, as she intends to release tracks
on a far more regular basis through her website between
album releases. Four solo albums in just under four years
have become a seminal presence in the Scottish folk scene,
and the current trend shows that the best is yet to come.
'This Earthly Spell' is released on the 11th
March
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