Billy Vincent - She Album Review

rating: 4

Now, you might remember these from the previous review I did of the lead single off this album, though of course you might not, you might not have even read said review. Either way, here we are, again or for the first time, it€™s Billy Vincent. This time, it€™s personal. This time, it€™s full length. For those unfamiliar, and those despicable sorts who didn€™t read that previous review, then here€™s a bit of back story for you, just in case you haven€™t been arsed to click that link and follow through. Billy Vincent mostly stem from the basis of their two frontmen, one named Billy Barratt and the other David Vincent, but beyond that they€™re more than a duo, they€™re a group; a group with a keen ear for some emotionally impactive and almost pop-like folk music. Now, before you step back and say €˜woah, now Morgan, you€™ve summarised the band before the review has even started and you€™re far too drunk, why should we read on?€™ I€™ll say you need to read on as much as you need to listen to this album and listen to it again, because the grand reveal doesn€™t necessarily come on the first listen but the listen after, or the one after that. Now, that might sound like a lot of effort that€™s more than necessary, but that €˜might sound like€™ is entirely incorrect. On first listen this album will strike you in a number of ways; -the impressive vocals on display by both frontmen; one soft, gentle and emotionally tender, the other rough edged, jagged and enthralling. Alongside that there€™s the folk meets rock and strings arrangements, the melody and the brevity. Instead of the initial aesthetic pleasure, with each listen you get a deeper meaning, a deeper texture and a deeper feeling. This isn€™t to say this album becomes more perfect with each listen, because, no, it doesn€™t, because it isn€™t. However, moment within it are near enough damn it. I€™ll admit it now, that most of these moments come in the latter half of the album, though there are plenty in the first half. Dead Man€™s Shoes couldn€™t be more folksy if it tried. The intro cries it aloud, fiddles and strings and a tempo that makes you wish you could morris dance and no one would know. As with a lot of the album though, the vocals and the arrangements are the key selling point both passionate and sensitive. And It Fights sounds so gentle in its intro that it€™s hard not to swoon and have Fleetwood Mac come to mind at their most balladry. Again though it€™s the vocal melodies and the structuring of the arrangements in their chord progressions that are what hit home most, especially as they rise and fall. The Wayward Fall in Line is the shortest and most up-tempo track displayed here, and it€™s folk through and through with its fiddles and €˜hidee ho oh hi€™ refrains, it€™s like the grass and mountain equivalent of a sea shanty. The first half of the album works within this traditional folk by way of pop structure and beautiful voiced arrangement, though Whittled Away is the first excursion from this taking a clearly more indie and traditional rock ballad take on folk. Where Jemima Goes is the first real slump, whilst it has its positives like the production and arrangement, the melody and structures alongside the vocals these highlights don€™t make a whole and it falls a flat. It€™s not the only victim of this, but it€™s one of the most of note. Feathers is an immediate antidote to this though, whilst not the strongest moment on the album the piercing string breaks really seal the deal on this tale. Whilst up to this point the album has been enjoyable and featured some brilliant moment, it is 4, 5, 6 that really initiates the true beginning of quality on display here. Half the album over it brings in a mostly piano and vocal arrangement that is emotive and deeply affective, pianos dramatic and vocals honest and breaking under their own pain; it€™s quite beautiful and the start of the albums purest wing as it in itself builds its own tension before the tension that will follow. Pirates starts and is immediately recognisable in my opinion as one of the strongest moments on the album. It€™s tense and aggressive but still melancholic and folk-like, truly encapsulating the whole €˜folk-rock€™ ideal, especially the addition to the mix of the electric guitar and pulsive drums, you can€™t help but we swept up and relate to the stand out lyric; €˜I know I broke your heart, but look at mine.€™Lisson Grove is perhaps the most tender song on the album, earnest and both folkish and 60s balladry under its own piano lead, not necessarily a highlight but truly touching and beautiful as it builds upon its own emotion. Beneath the Castle Floor brings things back around to their begins and gets truly folky, like a more a honest and less chart concentrating Mumford & Sons. Though it returns to the first half of the album it is brilliantly strong, with a genuinely catchy and entrancing chorus. http://youtu.be/mpBLDmciG1w I feel it kind of unnecessary to discuss Bottle Top given my previous review. Though, what I will say it is testament to the songwriting on display here that they are willing to keep such a strong single until the penultimate track on the album. Heartfelt and touching it really hits home, both structurally and lyrically. Where my highest praise will fall upon this album will be for its closing track; The Ballad of Billy Vincent. Taking their own duel named moniker and making a character out of him is a genius stroke that ties beautifully in with their folk influences. What unfolds over these final seven minutes is the birth to death tale of this band€™s self created protagonist, quite the anti-hero. Starting out, out of place and educated in a back end town, he ends a gruesome and violent criminal in a high end town, his own life a lie and an inspiration for the terrible trouble he cause. The story itself is brilliant but the true highlight is in the vocals at the final moment of the track, as the break the realization to the listener and the storyteller simultaneously they crack and fall spectacularly. Billy Vincent FacebookBilly Vincent Website