Scottish Enlightenment - Potato Flower

  by Adrian Janes

published: 17 / 7 / 2018

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Like a sensitive plant that has been nurtured in the dark, the sound of the Scottish Enlightenment’s second album is both delicate and possessed of strong roots. From the quarter that produced ‘St Thomas’ they are now more clearly centred upon David Moyes (vocals, guitar, bass), who is chiefly joined here by Al Nero (guitars, drums, vocals). Opener ‘Keep the Cats Outside’, a lament for a dying woman, is appropriately funereal, its prosaic title suggestive of the domestic, intimate world many of these songs grow from. Sensitive touches of reverbed guitar complement a bedrock sound that’s almost Calvinist in its austerity, while David Moyes’ grief is all the more affecting in its understatement: “She took three days, withered and blew life away”. This is matched in tempo and poignancy by the closing track, ‘Wasps’, a song that ends hopefully with the signs of Spring despite the stings of sadness (“Winter near broke us”). Here Moyes’ somewhat sombre voice is lightened by Clare Rajan’s harmonising. The guitarwork has something of the piercing economy of ‘Man of the World’ Peter Green. The ballad ‘Slightly’ is a particular instance of Moyes’ close observation, the kind that notices a potato flower but which is here focused on the everyday discontent of a relationship that dissatisfies, though not enough to attempt a clean break: “I want you to cheat on me/But only slightly.” Like the title of the album, there’s a basic humbleness to the band’s sound yet not so much as to deny some more colourful offshoots, such as the guitar on ‘Self-Made Man’ and ‘The Last Howl’. There’s also the embellishment from Rajan’s vocals on several tracks, notably the plaintive call and response between Moyes and the backing singers on ‘Blood Harmony’, suggestive of a twisted relationship with a twisted connection to the past: “My lovely former fearsome lover/You’re all the pleasure I ever suffered”. ‘Colour It In’ is also appropriately brighter than the dryer, greyer character of some of the other songs, the drums heavier and the guitar more strident than usual, though never losing control; a passion that never overcomes reason. The single ‘Fingers’ brings together the two sides of the band’s personality, the verses doleful and musically restrained, while the chorus opens out in a way that sounds almost cheerful but which actually affirms “We are alone/Always”, though a powerful guitar solo communicates an urge to resist that conclusion. There are quite a few positives with this album, but there’s somehow an underlying coolness too which is somewhat offputting. And though credit is due to David Moyes for singing in his own voice, I don’t always find his uncompromising accent understandable. The Scottish Enlightenment try to strike a balance between a consideration of sombre subjects and the feelings they produce. If this tends to performances that are a tad too controlled, there are tracks like ‘Wasps’ and ‘Fingers’ where it works and they are bringing it all back Hume.

Track Listing:-

1 Keep the Cats Outside
2 Self-Made Man
3 Slightly
4 Colour It In
5 The Last Howl
6 Blood Harmony
7 Machinery
8 Fingers
9 Wasps

Band Links:-

https://en-gb.facebook.com/TheScottishEnlightenment/
http://www.thescottishenlightenment.com/
https://twitter.com/ScottishEnlight
https://thescottishenlightenment.bandcamp.com/

Label Links:-

http://www.armellodie.com/
https://www.facebook.com/armellodie/
https://twitter.com/armellotweet
http://www.armellodie.tumblr.com/

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