Co-Pilgrim - A Fairer Sea

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 8 / 3 / 2013

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Despite describing himself as an unlikely musician, Mike Gale will be a familiar face to anyone from Oxford, having long been a fixture on the city’s local music scene, first as front man of Black Nielsen and now with Co-Pilgrim, which started as a solo project but is now a four-piece band, including Joe Bennett of Dreaming Spires (one of the founders of the Truck Festival) and the rhythm section from Black Nielsen. For his first album in five years, Gale holed up with former-Ride man Mark Gardener in his Oxford studio, and set about recording an album of dreamy sun-kissed pop. Gale’s songs are simple affairs, but Gardener’s production is sensitive to this – the backing vocals (often sung by Gardener) bring out the melodies and the backing instruments bathe the tunes in a hazy din. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear this had been recorded in early-1970's California. Opener ‘22’ passes by pleasantly enough – you can imagine a festival crowd’s heads bobbing along on as the sun toasts their bald patches – but it is his more wistful songs that are most enjoyable. ‘A Fairer Sea’ has a gentle crescendo, but manfully resists the temptation to lose itself in a singalong chorus. Instead we are treated to a rather classy combination of multi-harmonized vocals and slide guitar. Gale has a gentle, naturally high voice and is best suited to ballads. “Now You’re Here” has a simple, almost childish sentiment, but is probably the album’s strongest track – a late-night love song, all the more effective for its directness. Gale cites his main influences as the Beach Boys and Sparklehorse, while there are many echoes of Gene Clark and Big Star. Fans of Gale’s fellow Oxfordians Supergrass will find much to love here.

Track Listing:-

1 22
2 Trapeza
3 A Fairer Sea
4 Sialo
5 I'm Going To The Country
6 Now You're Here
7 Come On Come On
8 Roslindale
9 No Man Or Mountain
10 No Guiding Light

Band Links:-

http://www.co-pilgrim.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/copilgrim
https://twitter.com/copilgrim

Label Links:-

https://twitter.com/battleworldwide
https://www.facebook.com/battleworldwide
https://www.youtube.com/user/https%3A//www.youtube.com/battleworldwide
http://www.battleworldwideinc.com/
https://twitter.com/battleworldwide

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