Artist: Darren Black
Title: Thinkers And Fools
Label: Darren Black
Genre: Folk
Bitrate: 157kbit av.
Time: 00:37:25
Size: 44.92 mb
Rip Date: 2008-09-22
Str Date: 2008-00-00
1. Walls Of Familiarity 3:57
2. World Without Cars 3:21
3. Money 4:59
4. Fruits Of Your Labour 2:48
5. Decisions 3:45
6. Mind Out Of Gear 3:49
7. Selling Honey To The Bees 4:00
8. Old Mother Nature 2:47
9. Icarus To The Sun 5:37
10. Where The Water Rises 2:22
Release Notes:
Thinkers & Fools is the second album from burgeoning British
song-writing talent Darren Black. With a style that boasts
firmly established folk roots, Black chooses his collaborators
carefully to bolster this inclination. Joining Black here is a
formidable cast of accomplished musicians that includes
veteran fiddle maverick Dave Swarbrick, former Uiscedwr member
Kevin Dempsey on guitar, and one-time Albion Band member Joe
Broughton on fiddle, mandolin, bass and percussion. As if that
weren't enough, Broughton also takes the production credits
here.
There are some utterly delectable string arrangements that add
a real edge of class to the album. On "World Without Cars"
Black's lightly picked guitar is joined by Paloma Trigas'
violin, Helen Lancaster's viola and Emma Capp's resonant
cello, evoking that distinctly rustic English sound that
graced Nick Drake's work. Lyrically, Black delivers another of
his distinguishing commentaries on the modern world, espousing
an introspective approach without resorting to anger:
"Breathing air that bristles life, spirits roaming free /
heavy smog that choked this town, now is history."
The current political hot potato of food-miles also is
subjected to Black's adept dissection on "Selling Honey To The
Bees," where Black addresses the subject with an eloquence
that will hold far more appeal than the rhetoric of bellicose
public figures: "Ask yourself do you need a choice of 12 / or
will one suffice / at a fair and honest price?" The song from
which the album gets its title, "Money," has dark, theatrical
nuances, as Black bemoans the evils of a profit-obsessed
world: "With guns for the nations who hold the trump cards /
our oil-fed addiction's the drip in their arm."
Everything about Thinkers & Fools is likeable. Black's lyrics
are thought-provoking and reflective; the instrumental
arrangements are accomplished but never intrusive. One gets
the feeling that this represents the early days in a career
that has the potential to give rise to an impressive and
influential body of work.