Firefly Burning - Lightships

  by Andy Cassidy

published: 27 / 6 / 2012

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Firefly Burning are a five piece group from East London. Far from being made up of the usual two guitars, drums, bass and vocal line up which has become so commonplace, Firefly Burning boasts a cellist, a violinist, and group member John Barber playing the Javanese Gender (a primitive-looking xylophone). While the band write all of their music as a collective, many of the album’s lyrics are taken from the world of poetry – E. E. Cummings, Clive Sansom and Claudia Gould for instance share writing credits with vocalist Bea Hankey. The minimalist opening of ‘I Feel ‘sets a gentle tone before slowly building with some heavier piano chords. The track the goes off on a tangent, fusing eastern influences with quirky piano. Over each section, Bea Hankey’s quirky vocal soars in a manner reminiscent of Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom or Tori Amos - Indeed, the track could sit very comfortably on any of the trio’s albums. ‘O Thou’ is as an ebbing and flowing piece, almost an oceanic tone poem, before a string section comes in and takes the track to a near-overwhelming crescendo. My favourite track on the album is ‘The Slaughter of the Innocent’s. With lyrics by Claudia Gould, the piece is reminiscent (in arrangement) of Sufjan Stevens or Rufus Wainwright. This is a wonderful album, full of eccentric charm and gorgeous melodies. The instrumentation is imaginative but always understated. Bea Hankey is, for me, the star of the show. Her earnest delivery shows that she has a true connection with the lyrics, even when they are written by someone else. Her voice is superb and suits the music perfectly – there is a gentle, lilting quality to her delivery which is simply entrancing. I loved the idea of setting poetry to music – sure, it’s been done before, but I can’t think of an example where it was executed as well as it is on ‘Lightships’. Firefly Burning are simply bursting with potential and are one of the most exciting bands that I have heard this year. I will be following their next step with interest.

Track Listing:-

1 I Feel
2 O Thou
3 It's Like
4 Lady Laurie
5 The Slaughter of the Innocents
6 We Are Leaves
7 Arthur and the Great Element
8 Little Boat
9 Lightships

Band Links:-

https://twitter.com/wearefirefly
https://www.facebook.com/fireflyburning

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