Artist: King Creosote
Album: From Scotland With Love
Bitrate: 240kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Domino Records
Genre: Folk
Size: 70.72 megs
PlayTime: 0h 38min 57sec total
Rip Date: 2014-08-12
Store Date: 2014-07-18
Track List:
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01. Something To Believe In 3:14
02. Cargill 3:16
03. Largs 3:53
04. Miserable Strangers 4:47
05. Leaf Piece 5:32
06. For One Night Only 4:09
07. Bluebell, Cockleshell, 1 2 3 2:08
08. One Floor Down 3:05
09. Crystal 8s 2:12
10. Pauper┤s Dough 5:05
11. A Prairie Tale 1:36
Release Notes:
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Released to coincide with the July 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, From
Scotland with Love is more than another pet project by prolific Scottish indie
folksinger King Creosote (Kenny Anderson). Commissioned by the BBC and arts
initiative Creative Scotland, it is a unique collaborative work with filmmaker
Virginia Heath where Anderson provides a sort of conceptual soundtrack to
Heath's moving documentary comprised entirely of archival footage depicting
Scottish history. The film offers no interviews or voice-overs, relying instead
on Anderson's poetic songs to tell the story and embellish flickering scenes of
political strife, social uprisings, industry, war, and bucolic country life in
the early 20th century. A Fife native and veteran of nearly 50 independent
albums, Anderson has always radiated a strong localism, making him perfect for
the job, though there must have been plenty of pressure in abbreviating vast
swaths of his country's history into just 11 songs -- especially considering the
broader national audience this collaboration brings him in such an important
political year for Scotland, which will vote on their independence from England
in September 2014. But, much of the charm of this project and of Anderson's work
in general is how it portrays its subjects in small vignettes rather than broad
strokes. The minutiae of everyday life and the very human emotions associated
with them have always been a King Creosote specialty and he shines here on
tracks like "Cargill," a song describing the daily life of fishermen in the
small Perthshire village, and "Leaf Piece," whose slang title refers to a snack
that school children used to keep in their bags. It's this type of depth and
detail that brings the images to life, and working within the loose borders of a
historical theme has allowed Anderson to produce the most focused and detailed
record of his career. There are moments of joy, nostalgia, sorrow, and even
frivolity, like on the jazzy, upbeat "Largs," but the album reaches its
emotional peak on the call to action "Pauper's Dough," whose slow musical build
mirrors the sentiment of its ensemble chorus, "You've got to rise above the
gutter you are inside." It's not the Scotland of Walker's shortbread and
red-bearded pipers that so often gets shoveled out to tourists, but a moving
portrait of strong-willed people enduring in times of change.