Most of my music listening gets done on my bus
ride to work or my walk home. However, I had a lot of errands to run on Friday
and it necessitated a lot of wandering around town, allowing me to get in a full
listen of this next album.
Despite it being mostly chores, I did find
time to duck into the local record store, where I grabbed L7’s new album “Scatter
the Rats” and another Sabaton record, “Heroes.” Both are good, but more on
those when I roll them.
Disc 1275 is… Roses and Tears
Artist:
Capercaillie
Year of Release: 2008
What’s up with the
Cover?
Children play in a water park. I assume the water is either rosewater or tears.
A rosewater fountain would be some kind of mystical blessed fountain – maybe a
Water Park of Youth? By contrast, a tear fountain would be a cursed water park that
feeds off of any drama that children have while playing and then absorbs their psychic
distress through their tears. That last type of water park should probably have
a parental advisory.
How I Came to Know
It: I’ve
known Capercaillie since I bought one of their albums at A&B Sound (a now
defunct record store) in 1989. I picked my first Capercaillie album based on it
having a lot of songs in Gaelic (I was really into Scottish folk music at the
time). I bought “Roses and Tears” when it came out.
How It Stacks Up: I have nine Capercaillie albums. I would have
ten but I stopped buying them after “Roses and Tears.” Not surprisingly, it
comes in last place.
Ratings: 2 stars
There was a time when if I liked a band I had
to own every album they released. That time has passed, allowing me to realize that
“Roses and Tears” would have been a fine Capercaillie record, if only I didn’t
have eight better ones.
All the elements I like are still here. Karen
Matheson’s voice remains one of folk music’s great treasures. Her tone is pure and
sweet, with a mysterious quality that evokes woodland faeries or Middle Earth
elves. She often sings in Gaelic which means I have no idea what she’s saying,
but she makes it all seem very important.
Unfortunately, the songs in English didn’t
feel this way at all. “Don’t You Go” and “Soldier Boy” are songs designed
to be suffused with intense emotion. The former is a mother pleading with her
son not to go to war, and “Soldier Boy” is about the terrible toll war takes
on those who must endure it. Whether it is the smooth production (more on that
later) or Matheson’s too-perfect diction these songs didn’t affect me the way
they should given the subject matter. Strangely, “Seinneam Cliu Nam Fear Ur”
- another song about the sacrifices of war - was incredibly powerful, even
though I had to look up a translation before I knew what it was about.
Charlie McKerron is one of my favourite fiddle
players, with a Scottish style that is rough and raw. Listening to it I can see
why it was Scottish folk that first weened me off of heavy metal in the
eighties – it’s just heavier than Irish or American fiddle playing. I like all
these styles now but having immersed myself in a Mandolin Orange album earlier
in the week, it was quite an adjustment. All that sprightly bluegrass playing from
Emily Franz is glorious but very different than McKerron’s clarion blasts.
The McKerron fiddle tracks are my favourite
songs on “Roses and Tears” particularly the reels where he can cut loose. “The
Aphrodisiac” and “Rose Cottage Reels” have him at his best,
technically perfect, but still suffusing every note with emotion and import.
Listening to McKerron I was tempted to set aside my decision to part with this
record, and I had to keep reminding myself I have heaps of his excellence on
other records already.
It is the production that most lets “Roses and
Tears” down. Apart from those fiddle reels many tracks feel artificially
perfect. At times it lacks that organic quality which is what makes folk music soar.
It doesn’t wreck the record, but it does make me yearn for other Capercaillie
records that do all the good things this one does, only better.
Best tracks: The Aphrodisiac, Seinneam Cliu Nam Fear Ur, Rose
Cottage Reels
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