Last Harbour - Host Of Wild Creatures

  by John Clarkson

published: 9 / 7 / 2002

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Review

Last Harbour have been a name to watch for some time now. An intense four song 7" debut EP, 'Hidden Songs', which was released on the Liquefaction label in early 2000, and an equally melancholic and sombre five track mini album, 'An Empty Box is My Heart', which came out at the end of last year, both signified immense initial promise and heralded hopefully great things still to come. 'The Host of Wild Creatures', their debut full-length album, which like its predecessor has been released on the French label Alice in Wonder, finds the band more than living up to those early hopes, and delivers on all counts. A Manchester-based consortium, Last Harbour currently consists of Gina Murphy on keyboards ; Sarah Kemp on violin ; David Armes on guitar and Kev Craig on vocals plus various other rotational and floating members. One gets the impression from listening to Last Harbour that, like Jack, they come from a world in which solitary, insomniac drinking in smoke-filled bars, and long 3 a.m. walks home alone in the cold rain are not perhaps entirely uncommon. While lyrically their songs tell of heartbreak, loss and regret, musically their songs come across as a cross between Tindersticks and the Willard Grant Conspiracy in their 'Flying Low' era, with Kemp's searing scrapings ; Armes' methodical acoustic pluckings ; Craig's deep, rich vocals and Murphy's stabbing keyboards each standing out, and all being allowed centre stage at different points on the album. 'Mark Your Allegiance', the band's 'Venus in Furs', is reminiscent of Nick Cave's 'Murder Ballads' with its deliberate sense of theatricalism, and has Murphy duetting with Craig on vocals. "Come on/Mark your allegiance/Put you mark on my chest" they sing, jibing at and baiting and circling each other with a sinister waspishness, while Kemp's violin drones hazily in the background. 'If Lovin' You is Wrong' grows out of 'Housewarming Song', a melodically, beautiful tale of rejected and unrequited love, and, a radically different cover of an old Millie Jackson song, captures both the guilt and joy of a secret adulterous union. "If lovin'you is wrong, I don't want to lose the best thing I ever had" Craig sings with forlorn defiance. "If lovin'you is wrong, I don't want to be right." Rustic country blues number 'Salt in my Tears', with soft jabs of harmonica, meanwhile describes a seemingly more conventional relationship, and has a slightly lost Craig finding salvation through the regular love of a woman, but there is am immediate twist to the story. "Why me, Lord?/After all I have done" he broods in its first line. "Why Me, Lord ?/After all the gambling and the whores." Despite their moroseness, Last Harbour, prove to be not without humour though in other aspects of the album as well. The one minute long 'Goodbye Huw' features a frantic, clattering solo from drummer on loan, Huw McPherson. The industrial, funereal Joy Division-influenced 'Brides' meanwhile tells of a multiple wedding made in Hell, but then suddenly erupts into a lively, rattling waltz. At 50 minutes long, 'The Host of Wild Creatures', however, is too intense, and too musically complex and ambitious, to make initial easy listening. Like much of the work of the latter day Scott Walker, with whom the band, and the baritone Craig in particular, share some allegiance, it is perhaps best listened to at first in stages to be fully appreciated, but is so thoughtful, strange and disturbing that one extracts something new from it with each new hearing, and it quickly becomes compelling. While perhaps difficult, it is also one of the most rewarding albums of the year.

Track Listing:-

1 Bookseller Song
2 Mark Your Allegiance
3 Brides
4 Housewarming Song
5 If Lovin' You Is Wrong
6 From The Sea
7 South-Facing Room
8 The Wanting Seed
9 Goodbye Huw
10 Jackdaw, Jackdaw
11 Salt In My Tears
12 And They're Deaf And They're Dumb And They're Blind
13 Brides Reprise