21 December 2009
ShakenstirDan PJ
I was introduced to William Fitzsimmons via the free music website, www.rcrdlbl.com. The track in question is a gently cracked live version of ‘Goodmorning.' A few months later again on rcrdlbl.com another William Fitzsimmons song came along, but this time a remix of the beautiful ‘I Don't Feel It Anymore (Song Of The Sparrow)', and a remix which adds radiohead-esque mechanical beauty rather than just your standard squeal of a synthesizer. This of course got me wondering just how good the album, with the songs in their purest form, would be, and it became my most anticipated album in some time.
So would the real deal disappoint or inspire me...
There are a few key indicators with singer/songwriters which will let you now pretty early on if they are going to be an irritation or irresistible. Is it a raw, naked type of music, with the writer being laid bare with no gang to share the responsibility and no-one else to hide behind? There is the voice factor, no matter how good a song is, sometimes the voice just grates and particularly with minimalist songs like these with no big guitars or effects to hide behind - the voice is pretty important. I love his voice which is like a warm bath of honey, so all good there then. The level of production is the other big factor to me. I want this sort of record to sound rough and honest, and not sparkling with digital echo and modern studio lies, particularly as his first two record were totally homemade while this is the first effort to involve a proper studio set-up.
Looking at the track titles, you can tell this is an album of heartbreak, hope and broken memories. The first track signals an acceptance of what has happened, but without the realisation that it is over. ‘After Afterall' is so simple and honest with the opening line, "I still love you," really saying it all. Accompanied by a crying piano, a distant female vocal and an ever-so just-there synthesizer, it shows that we are in for a very intimate affair. Next up is the first original version of the two tracks I have already heard, ‘I Don't Feel It Anymore (Song Of The Sparrow)' is sung mostly with a dual vocal and the same female voice backed by guitar and a Hammond. There is no percussion on show here until track four to drive the songs and control the pace, which really leaves an album like this open to the criticism that it is just a load of random songs rather than an album. However, there is a flow throughout which is knitted together by both the quality of the songs and the emotional journey they are mapping.
When we get some percussive support on ‘If You Would Come Back Home', it becomes apparent that what William Fitzsimmons does really well is to find tiny moments of real musical joy even in his dark songs. In the same way that Michael Stipe manages to just hit a certain note or find a magical melody, so does William Fitzsimmons, but throughout all his songs. It is one perfect moment followed by another with the lyrics
being the tie which binds it all together. This is helped greatly by a vocal that is restrained but passionate. The album continues along the same path of gentle acoustic accompaniment to songs of regret, despair and pain.
When we get to ‘Just Not Each Other', the pace picks up a little with a very slightly more perky guitar and an acceptance that despite the pain this may be the only path to happiness and just maybe they will make it through this. The song concludes with as much of a crescendo as can be expected on such a record with several layered vocals repeating "Love again, but just not each other". So are we on the way up and out... well kind of. The remainder of the album deals with the memories and the anger of rejection which comes after the hope of repair has gone.
Then we get to the final song on the album, and the first song I heard from William Fitzsimmons, albeit a very stripped down live version. Quite wonderfully, the final song is called ‘Goodmorning' and is by far the cheeriest of tracks, reminding me of one of Nick Drake's few happier moments. As it fades out it with "Goodmorning, you will find love", you can't help but feel that this journey has been a worthwhile one and you step away with a smile rather than feeling that all is lost. Quite an achievement on what is essentially a heartbreak record...
There have been some breathtaking heartbreak albums over the last ten years, with Ryan Adam's HEARTBREAKER and Bon Iver's FOR EMMA FOREVER AGO being probably the two benchmarks which all others have to sit alongside. So where does THE SPARROW AND THE CROW find itself? Well it is not quite in the same league as those two records, but it does earn its place in your record collection as a very warming and heartfelt record inspired by clearly very emotional and dark times but with hope on the horizon.