mull historical society
In My Mind There's A Photograph via LNFG
Reviewed by Stuart Clarkson
Album released 29th May 26
The latest release from Colin MacIntyre aka Μull Historical Society combines the worlds of music and books and features contributions from a collection of acclaimed authors such as Irvine Welsh as well as a host of other Pulitzer, Booker and other prize winning authors.
The premise is simple enough, the authors were asked to reflect on a single, meaningful photograph from their life and Colin would then add the music to their words to produce a finished song. In effect playing Elton to their Bernie and in the process bringing their emotive words to life.
The formula proved successful in the band’s previous album, 2023’s In My Mind There’s A Room when the subject matter was a special room as opposed to a photograph.
My initial scepticism surrounding the concept was founded on the belief that the idea may weaken the songs as it does with some musicals where lyrics are shoe horned in to a musical composition on order to fit the narrative.
However upon hearing the record I was pleased to be proved wrong and the songs enhance each author’s words and bring their thoughts to a new audience.
Colin’s voice lends emotion to each contribution amplifying the issues and causing the words to jump off the page if you will in a way that would not be possible in a book alone.
He appears attuned to the author’s ideas and the final output is a cohesive and convincing interpretation of their thoughts , retaining the original spirit whilst adding an extra layer of poignancy.
All human life is here with topics ranging from casualties in 9/11 to a day out in a Hillman Imp, and from Gaza to the re-development of Glasgow.
All the songs were written by the authors and Colin who himself is an award winning author.
The album’s power pop opener gets us off to a barnstorming start with its Strangleresque chorus of ‘Where are the heroes’ in reference to the author’s Grandfather who was a night mail train worker.
Punky guitar riffs and a spiky delivery grab the attention.
This leads on to a poignant piano led piece dripping with emotion which tells the story of the author, Colin McCann’s father-in-law defying the odds in escaping the collapsing second tower on 9/11 and walking back to his family’s embrace.
Cattle Bells is a glorious ballad with a Gospel choir accompaniment featuring words from Sir Alexander McCall esteemed author of No1 Ladies Detective Agency.
Charing Cross canyon ups the tempo and is more familiar Mull Historical Society territory. The subject is the re-development of Glasgow and its resultant effect on people’s lives. A Wish We’d Taen Mair is Len Pennie’s contribution and her spoken word Scottish brogue suits the song perfectly as she looks back on a childhood photo and her changing priorities over the years.
Elsewhere Midnight Sun has a glorious singalong romp of a chorus as Paul Lynch re-visits his grand-parent’s long vacated former home. Dopamine Eyes is Irvine Walsh’s contribution and describes the first masked meeting with his future wife during lockdown set to an indie pop backing.
Several musical styles are showcased on the album and each appears well matched to the subject matter and complements the sentiments being expressed.
A thought provoking release that stands on its own merits as a good album but improves immeasurably with repeated listens and acquaintance with the themes. A nostalgic look at an old photograph is something that resonates with most of us and this album takes that process to the next level.
Everyone concerned in the production of the record must be delighted with the results and each author has a uniquely personal song to look back on.
deer tick
Coin-O-Matic via ATO Records
Reviewed by Chris Morley
Album released - 5th June 26
It feels fitting that this album's title implies pot luck- Deer Tick seem incredibly resistant to giving people what they might expect, & while Dog Years starts on an almost Dylan-ish ramble, it opens out into something far more Springsteen- ish, born in a considerably duller USA than even the one the Boss sought to expose as a land of dreams taken rather than given? The formula is in place on first single Mary Singletary, which adds a sort of morbid McCartneyish rhyme scheme ( think Temporary Secretary with added anger & resignation).
Endless Loop feels like just that, another small-town Springsteenism with a dreamlike quality & almost Beach Boys harmony- endless summer as threat, not promise. Sweetest Things adds a little Crosby, Stills & Nash jangle just to enthral the ear while making you unsure this is an America you actually want to be sucked into, an undercurrent of something slightly sinister underneath all that honey-dripping, ACI a more explicit hard- luck story- the back to Earth thud after all too brief shoots of something approaching happiness.
And maybe that's the message here- enjoy it while it lasts, as it isn't forever, even if you do have to steal a car to be able to enjoy the drive. Entirely apt, then, that Everything Born carries more than a whiff of the Cars, rock & roll with an added touch of new- wave just to remind us of the future ahead as much as the past left behind, Deer-ears knowingly to the ground.
Eyelid adds a touch of paranoia, a swerve towards a perhaps truer reflection of life in the land of the allegedly free & home of those brave enough to rail against what poses as democracy before I Am An Island arrives as an affirmation of independence & celebration of freedom itself, but is it real or imagined?
Exit Door the line between reality & fantasy is properly blurred, and closing track Candy Cigarettes is either a lament for or yearning to return to a simpler time, swatted away as easily as a childhood baseball.....
the veils
Fragile World - via V2 Records
Reviewed by Chris Morley
Album released - 19th June 26
Is it really this easy to make a record which could strike a chord with anyone disaffected by the state of the world?
Given that Finn Andrews has had skin in the game on that score for a while now its perhaps little surprise his boots are on & he's back to give it another kick from the relatively safe vantage point of New Zealand with The Veils.
But amidst all the implied gloom there is piano- led beauty, as if Seventies Elton John decided to go Antipodean rather than indulge Bernie Taupin's Americana whims, world- weariness hidden under a delicate cloak- Aurora surely begging for inclusion in some sort of nature documentary as well as setting the tone for much of what's to follow.
High Hopes reading as disappointment in a relationship which may have promised plenty before it all went south, the morning after the night before in glorious technicolour, an ultra- HD hymn to what may have been/ was.
Lungs adds a bit of a stadium thumpalong & mostly succeeds in setting up a sort of Kiwi Goodbye Yellow Brick Road with a wonder of the natural world/ romantic bent, all from Are You Awake Tonight- In This Heart benefitting from an understated conceptual heft underneath the borrowings from old Reg circa Tumbleweed Connection/Madman Across The Water/ Honky Chateau for a sense of place, with splashes of Good Morning To The Night for the electronic flourishes.
The Widening Dark a definite film- soundtrack candidate before My Foolish Heart gives the whole thing Wings- & whether yours was or remains an open book, there's plenty of pathos/ catharsis to be found in a world surely familiar to anyone who's ever truly loved & lost.
