Alvarez Theory - The Alvarez Theory

  by Fiona Hutchings

published: 14 / 5 / 2019

Label: Alvarez Theory
Format: CD

intro

Engaging eponymous debut album from London-based Americana/folk five-piece the Alvarez Theory, which includes well-crafted tales of about small town heroes and bar flies

Originally Spanish/German born Diana (Dee) Diehl was a solo artist in Germany supporting British bands and singers such as Charlotte Hatherley. I'm not at all surprised that she gathered more musicians to join her in the last few years. With Dee on guitar and vocals we have Sarah Louise Bates on bass and vocals, Julia O'Hanion providing fiddle, concertina and vocals, Mark Patterson on mandolin, banjo and guitar with Flo Miller on drums. Additionally four further artists are listed on the album providing fiddle, electric guitar, organ and drums. That gives you some idea of how richly written and layered this album is. Nothing is overblown or included just for its own sake but equally, despite being recorded over just ten days, nothing feels rushed or incomplete. The Alvarez Theory are an Americana folk band weaving tales that capture your ears and paint pictures with sound. Opening track and lead single, ‘By the River’, is plaintive, beautiful and somehow sounds like waves on water. It's a feeling present in many of the album’s ten tracks. Mary McKinley is a sad tale of women running away, escaping across the sea from towns that brings them down, down, down. ‘House That Stood the Storm’ speaks to surviving alongside the unpredictability of nature herself. ‘Like Turner Studied Clouds’ fairly floats and ‘Big City, Empty’ soars and swoops in a way that is so beautiful it makes my heart hurt. These are well crafted tales of small town heroes, bar flies, gun slingers, heart breakers and those with broken hearts. Feeling adrift is a theme that comes up more than once as does feeling alone in the city and crossing the seas. The purity and universality of these stories make them accessible regardless of your usual music tastes. You can catch the Alvarez Theory at the album’s launch on May 24th at Camden's Green Note. And according to Google the Alvarez Theory is actually a hypothesis that the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and many other living things during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth. So many of these songs allude to that sort of total devastation albeit it on an individual scale. It checks out.

Track Listing:-