RICHARD DAWSON

Alright. Here we go.

I have listened to this album too many times, at least once I day for the past 4 months. In my life of listening to music I have never held witness to such a spectacle of diversity, emotion, and sound. Whether it's Dawsons enchanting falsetto and beautiful lyrics about human life, or circles theatrical symphonies that range from powerful electric prog on sections of Ivy, Pitcher, Lily, and Methuselah, and mesmerizing jazz rock on parts of Silphium, Cooksonia, Silene, and again Methuselah. With no tracks under 6 minutes and only 7 of them, it's definitely quality over quantity and each track has so much to delve into narratively. With the whole album being centered around extinct plant species which mirror the titles of each track and how it affects human life, such as a once thriving merchant business slowly dying with the steady extinction of the plant they depend on, Silphium, and how it affects the merchants and their families. Or, the humorous wit shown on methuselah, which is the name of the worlds oldest tree which scientist Donald Curry unfortunately finds out? when he's already cut it down. These stories which are vividly evident on each track and sometimes more than once (Ivy displays numerous accounts of ivy related stories such as the tragedy of Ikarios who discovered how to make wine but the shepherds who tried it felt it's affects and believed they had been poisoned, so they brutally murdered him and his family, the story of the boy who was swallowed by the trees outside his home, or even king Midas who's flowers [and OTHER things he adored] turned to gold as he slowly realizes the horrors of his once thought gift becoming a curse) But they are all masterfully woven together by Richard Dawson's vocals and Circles Instrumentation. To put it simply, every note played or sung on this album has its place, and every song is yet so different and beautiful in its own way.

Narratively, vocally, and instrumentally, I'll now delve into the first track of this album to thoroughly explain its genius and outline the listening experience to someone who I hopefully inspire to listen to the full album themselves.

Henki, meaning spirit or ghost in finish (the album is most likely named this in honor of the 6th track Lily), kicks off with Cooksonia, or for a better word, treds off with a slow, repetitive grinding strum and a simple drum pattern. Then, Dawson makes his entrance, with a quiet and concealing voice narrating a girl with dreams blocked by "the ocean of stone" that are her home walls where she is contained caring to her mother, which Dawson expresses and then bellows a shanty of "Ya Ho, Ya Ho, Ya Hoooo" picking up his voice for the first time. Once the first verse ends however, Dawson pauses and the guitar is replaced with synth and the drums continues, with sleigh-bells mimicking the base of the percussion pattern, creating a marvelously unexpected dreamy reflection of the young girl searching for her identity. then with the attention held, Dawson like a metamorphosis of a butterfly (unrelated, but there is a species of butterfly called Cooksonia) flying for the first time, arises into the air with a perfect falsetto and a new 3 chord guitar riff replacing the synth as if each pluck was the flap of a wing. This new instrumental and pitch reflects the sudden fast-forward of the girls life, As Dawson heavenly narrates. This pattern continues for the next few minutes but the story changes, the girl grows up broke but miraculously manages to go the university of Melbourne in Australia and with this information and a bit of research, it is evident that the women is Isabel Cookson, the scientist who did research on the recently discovered plant that her groundbreaking research of it would allow her to coin it Cooksonia. This is the wonderous plot of the track and it ends with a minute and a half of maybe the most beautiful synth rock I have ever heard, with the synth, the the 3 chord guitar riff, the drums, the sleigh bells, a new lower pitched 3 chord guitar riff, and a new instrument, the flawless overlapping melody of a piano. This art of just as masterful on every track, with different intensities, Melodies, and symphonies. I could go on for hours as this is my favorite album, from my favorite singer, accompanied by an amazing band, where everything comes together perfectly.

Listening diary 25th February, 2022: Richard Dawson - Peasant (avant-folk, 2017)

I don't really like writing these bits for albums I'm on first listen for, but I didn't listen to an awful lot of music on the 25th of February, so this will have to do. I had heard a live rendition of "Ogre" a while back, after my obsession with 2020 reached google search levels. It immediately struck me just how freak folk it was, and though this version isn't the same level of intensity as the live version, it's certainly a world away from the sound of its successor. I hear a lot of Comus and Exuma here, both artists that I love at the best of times but frequently fly off into unnecessary bouts of obscurity, and that can be heard here too. Time will tell if I warm to the more abrasive segments, but regardless of that I still believe that Dawson is a very special artist and what he does is completely unique.

5.8 (1st listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction

Hailing from Newcastle upon Tyne in England, Dawson is ostensibly a folk rocker with a literary style of lyric writing full of allusions that jump from present day to classical antiquity. The really cool Finnish experimental metal band Circle joins him as the backing combo, and it makes a great sound with a touch of sludge and occasional late 70s phat polysynth chords. On the Bandcamp page, Henki is billed as "the greatest flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record you'll hear this year." Dawson tends toward longer song structures that embrace full on prog on this album. Somehow, he still maintains hip cred. His falsetto is likely to remind you of Robert Wyatt.

Listening diary 15th January, 2022: Richard Dawson - 2020 (art rock, 2019)

If I ever return to doing yearly music awards (which I might, they are good fun), I think I might name one after this album. It would be called The Richard Dawson Award for the Album That Actually Made Me Care About Lyrics. Or something like that.

It's well documented at this point that I don't really care about lyrics in my music. I care about vocals, and the voice as an instrument, and the choice of words can obviously make or break a melody, depending on whether the words lock in with the shape of the notes, but the actual content? Don't know, don't care. I don't even know what the vast majority of my favourite songs are about; nor do I have any intention to learn.

But this album doesn't let you ignore its lyrics - in part it's due to Dawson's full frontal vocal display, but it's also the frequent usage of utterly mad lines which you just can't let fly by. I'll confess, it took until my third listen to really notice the lyrics, but the allusions to Galashiels and Lionel Messi and raising money for the British Red Cross was just too amusing for me to ignore. It probably helps considering my life situation right now. It's been a year since I last lived in Britain, and I'm beginning to miss it a lot. Dawson is from the northeast, an area I have a lot of love for, and though this record tells tales of sadness and struggle and frustration, what's endearing about it is the very English spirit to it all - the unity in having a rubbish time and finding a way to enjoy it anyway. I live in a country of saccharine optimism - New Zealand has most of its roots British culture, both England and Scotland, but instead of embracing the negatives, most people here choose to pretend they don't exist. The first time I really sat down with this album and its lyrics I got these incredibly strong feelings of homesickness - for a place that isn't my home. There's so much soul and heart here, to the point where it's made me break my own rules on talking about lyrical content in reviews.

Oh damn, I should probably talk about the music. That's what I normally do, right? Well, it's not as if this is an album that relies on its lyricism to stand up - far from it. Dawson has an incredible range of influences, but the strongest ones here to me are fellow Tynesiders Everything Everything, if you could imagine them playing sludgy art rock with strong Comus influences. He isn't afraid to veer into serious prog rock at times here, and the off-kilter avant-folk that characterised his early work is always a part of the musical palette, especially the fingerpicked guitar. The hooks here are excellent too, somehow managing to fit insanely catchy melodies into these bizarre and angular chord progressions. Some parts of it are a touch too avant for my tastes, but there are enough quality melodies here to bridge the gaps nicely.

7.5 (5th listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction