Cherry Ghost:
Herd Runners:
Heavenly:
CD/Vinyl/DD:
Out Now:
★★★★★★★★☆☆
With two critically-acclaimed albums under his wing, Bolton's sorrowful songwriter Simon Aldred must be sensing his time is due with this third opus. He might be right. But then, the Great British Public are a funny lot - just look at the recent elections and TV viewing figures for proof. In other words, it seems increasingly unlikely that the name Cherry Ghost will be replacing Elbow at the top of the charts for the hard-bitten and woebegone anytime soon.
And that's a pity.
In fact, it's an outrage if outrages were allowed to include the misfortunes of creative endeavours in the art world.
As it stands, Herd Runners is a down to earth, down-at-heel and stone-kicking beautiful stumble of an album that rarely engages gear quicker than neutral, save for a couple of perky pop nuggets sprinkled at random - it pleases on many levels. For the first few songs, it's big sweeping melodies all the way, minor-key carolling and little to scare the neighbours. Lovers of the first two Cherry Ghost albums, as well as the similar Richard Hawley, I Am Kloot and Guy Garvey, will find solace in Aldred's lyrical nuances in Sacramento - "It's a fight just to survive/working two jobs to keep the meter alive", he imparts - while the music itself continues the man's quest for an illusive anthem.
In The World Could Turn, he may have found it. Like Kissing Strangers and Mathematics, here's an Aldred signature song if ever I heard one - if you don't at least love this mini-epic, you're dead from the neck up. And before you know it, strings swoon and the mood becomes a little more intimate on another weepie, Drinking For Two. If you've been fortunate enough to hear that Tony Christie album Made in Sheffield, you'll identify with the Dickensian, misty gas-lamp atmosphere on this.
Love Will Follow You is jaunty in comparison to the rest of Herd Runners and might have benefitted from popping up a bit earlier in the album. Running-order gripes aside, Cherry Ghost have side-swerved that all-important third-album banana-skin very successfully with shimmering little treasures aplenty. Aldred is still very much at the controls.
Herd Runners:
Heavenly:
CD/Vinyl/DD:
Out Now:
★★★★★★★★☆☆
And that's a pity.
In fact, it's an outrage if outrages were allowed to include the misfortunes of creative endeavours in the art world.
As it stands, Herd Runners is a down to earth, down-at-heel and stone-kicking beautiful stumble of an album that rarely engages gear quicker than neutral, save for a couple of perky pop nuggets sprinkled at random - it pleases on many levels. For the first few songs, it's big sweeping melodies all the way, minor-key carolling and little to scare the neighbours. Lovers of the first two Cherry Ghost albums, as well as the similar Richard Hawley, I Am Kloot and Guy Garvey, will find solace in Aldred's lyrical nuances in Sacramento - "It's a fight just to survive/working two jobs to keep the meter alive", he imparts - while the music itself continues the man's quest for an illusive anthem.
In The World Could Turn, he may have found it. Like Kissing Strangers and Mathematics, here's an Aldred signature song if ever I heard one - if you don't at least love this mini-epic, you're dead from the neck up. And before you know it, strings swoon and the mood becomes a little more intimate on another weepie, Drinking For Two. If you've been fortunate enough to hear that Tony Christie album Made in Sheffield, you'll identify with the Dickensian, misty gas-lamp atmosphere on this.
Love Will Follow You is jaunty in comparison to the rest of Herd Runners and might have benefitted from popping up a bit earlier in the album. Running-order gripes aside, Cherry Ghost have side-swerved that all-important third-album banana-skin very successfully with shimmering little treasures aplenty. Aldred is still very much at the controls.