Freddie Stevenson - The Darkening/The Brightening

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 5 / 2 / 2016

---

Review

‘The Darkening/The Brightening’ is truly an album of two halves. Side one, ‘The Darkening’, drops a key with each song while side two, ‘The Brightening’, unfolds in the opposite way. The album was performed, recorded and mixed by Stevenson at Clerkington Studios in Scotland and co-produced by Stevenson with Waterboy Mike Scott. Stevenson wrote all of the eighteen songs, one a co-write with Scott. Oh, and it’s the most gorgeous collection of songs that you could wish to hear. The longest song here, ‘Goodbye For Good’, is barely three and a half minutes long; seven of the tracks don’t even reach the two minute mark and maybe that’s what makes them so appealing. Stevenson has a winning way with heart-stopping melodies, his, at times, laid-back whisper of a voice draws you into his songs and he’s one of those artists who takes the listener along on his journey which you simply can’t resist. There’s a back story to this album that bears repeating as, while it obviously informs the lyrics, it also gives some indication of the rich yet yearning musical accompaniment that brings the songs to life. After a tour opening for the Waterboys, which took place just after Stevenson had moved to the Catskills and broken up with his girlfriend, he retreated to his father’s Scottish home where he poured his feelings of loss into a set of songs which became ‘The Darkening’. Later on, that spring, Stevenson caught a picture of “A girl sitting in a hollow tree/Her gold hair bathed in light”, which was the inspiration for ‘The Beginning’. The song, which opens the ‘Brightening’ section of this album titled ‘The First Day of Spring’, is simply one of this decade’s most beautiful songs. At just under two minutes Stevenson’s almost whispered “Keep my past in a jar by my bed/Where I mix it up with dreams of heaven” is so effective it’s almost heart stopping. ‘The Darkening/The Brightening’, despite a few folk leanings, is an album that is thankfully genre-free. Although far from being a collection of short otherworldly pieces, there is an ethereal quality to these songs. It’s like Stevenson has plucked these melodies from the heavens (one song is titled ‘Searching the Heavens’) and amassed a select choir of angels to bring them to us. While the album neatly does the job of expressing the sorrow of a break-up before discovering the joy of love again, and while the way each song segues into the next avoids this being a collection of short story songs and more of a themed journey through one man’s emotions, it’s the overall feeling that the album conveys that makes it so special. And ‘The Darkening/The Brightening’ is special. There’s not a host of instruments involved, but still a warm, rich, welcoming sound is attained. Stevenson’s almost-whisper is like having him sing just for you in a darkened room on occasions and when a choir (of Stevensons?) enters the room as it does on a number of songs it’s always a breathtaking moment. ‘Vigil’, the closing song, with it’s choir of “Are you alright?” is chillingly beautiful, a perfect end to a brilliant and original album. ‘The Darkening/The Brightening’ is apparently Stevenson’s fourth album but trying to track down his previous work, although something you will feel compelled to do after experiencing his latest set, will no doubt prove hard to do, so don’t let this collection of beautifully crafted songs pass you by. This album couldn’t come more highly recommended.

Track Listing:-

1 Welcome
2 The Rope Maker's Daughter
3 Heart Shaped Stone
4 All I've Got Left Is the Moon
5 Hell Hound Holly
6 Until the Devil Get Paid
7 That Dawn
8 A Falling Leaf
9 Goodbye for Good
10 The First Day of Spring
11 Thus Wept the Angel
12 Comatose Joe
13 Searching the Heavens
14 Loretta
15 One for the Landlocked Sailor
16 Lowlands Girl
17 The Girl With the Hawthorne Tree
18 Vigil

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/freddiesteven
http://www.freddiestevenson.net/
https://twitter.com/nightingalefred
https://www.youtube.com/user/3colourfu
https://plus.google.com/10683877228730

Label Links:-

http://cadizmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CADIZMUSIC
http://cadizmusic.co.uk/