Song, by Toad review

"I didn’t hear much of a peep out of you lot when I last reviewed Christian Williams’ stuff, but I really think you should be paying it more attention than that. It’s not just another dark country album in my increasingly large collection, this really is rather special.

Williams himself describes this as gothic prairie music, and that conjures the perfect impression of what you will hear. I don’t know about real prairies, being an ignorant Englander, nor their music, but I know what they look like, having spent a little time in central Canada as a child. The image of bleak emptiness they call to mind is perfectly encapsulated by the warm, resigned heartbreak of this music.

There’s a lot of folk in it, as well as what I would rather vaguely call Americana. It sounds incredibly old-fashioned, old enough that songs like the superb To The Trees even manage to remind me of something vaguely Celtic, and presumably a lot of the really old folk music from those parts came from the original Scottish, Irish and Dutch settlers.

For such an archetypal album, there is rich variety in this as well. The pace ebbs and flows beautifully, and the whole thing is beautiful to listen to in one go, something you can say for far too few releases these days. I recommended his previous album, but I really recommend this. Lovely."

-Matthew
Song, By Toad