A Farewell to Fair-weather is the third album by Glowfriends, a band which has evolved frombeginnings as an acoustic duo, consisting of brother and sister Mark and April Morris. The acoustic element of their former incarnation is evident here and there as in opening track 'Charade' and 'Bitter Gets Around', but is augmented by very carefully chosen additional instrumentation, not least of which is the vibraphone, skillfully played by Jenn Hendrix and fitting in beautifully with the arrangements.
The band as they are now also know how to kick up a bit and make some noise, they can rise from acoustic fragility to full tilt alt rock quite comfortably within the same song as in 'Stalemate'. 'Little Daylight' is perhaps a good indication of one area where the band draw inspiration from, as it has an early 90's 'shoegaze' feel to it, but isn't mired in it, the nod is reverential but not slavishly so.
One aspect of the this album that strikes you is the quality of the vocals and vocal harmonies and with 13 years or so under their belt singing together, Mark and April's airily light vocals mesh together perfectly. The tone and timbre of their combined voices is one of the many highlights of this album. All of the songs have an air of clarity to them and although the arrangements can swell into quite a powerful crescendo, everything is crystal clear, in it's place and serving a purpose, there's absolutely no fat or mush anywhere in the 16 songs, which is a credit to the band's arranging skills and also to producer Charlie Piper's skills in getting a concise sound in the studio.
So, A Farewell to Fair-Weather is quite hard to define as to where it sits in the musical spectrum, it is both delicate and light and also loud and panoramically expansive. It is a long album, but never does the listener tire as there is so much invention and great singing and playing to hold the attention and the desire to play the whole thing again follows swiftly after the last track has faded out.
Glowfriends deserve to play to bigger and bigger audiences as time progresses, as they have all the ingredients to become a top flight band, they have a sound of their own and the musical skill to go on developing. A great album and thoroughly recommended. Reviewed by Kevin Wallbank
2007 Release from JAM!!!
1. Charade 2. Bow Your Head 3. All Comes Down 4. Stalemate 5. Bitter Gets Around 6. Distance One 7. Little Daylight 8. January, February 9. Breaktime Is Over 10. Mandarin 11. Flowers 12. To Say What I Can't Say 13. All Gone, Goodbye 14. Aurora 15. Distance Two 16. Arise, The Bells of Morning
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