When is an album not an album? Not a cryptic question, but instead the neat little puzzle at the heart of “Patience To Play” by Two Ways Home.
The UK-based Anglo-Austrian duo — Isabella, originally from Vienna, and Lewis, who grew up in Gloucestershire — are songwriters at heart, and “Patience To Play” feels like the product of that craft being allowed to breathe. It comprises songs the band have released as standalone singles throughout the last couple of years, with the addition of several brand new, unheard tracks, including lead single “Room For Love.”
So perhaps it is a collection. Perhaps it is a snapshot. Perhaps it is simply what happens when good songs gather in one place and realise they belong together.
Either way, “Patience To Play” works.
The title track sets the tone, gentle and warm, with the sort of reflective ease that Two Ways Home do so naturally. There is no great rush here, no desire to bludgeon you with emotion. Instead, the songs unfold, and that is very much the point.
“Waiting On Luck” makes the argument that if you are waiting on luck, you will be waiting the rest of your life. Yet they wrap it up so lovely that you barely notice the sting. That is one of the great strengths of this record: it can be quietly devastating while still sounding like sunlight through the curtains.
“Room For Love” reflects on the modern reality that you cannot even slam the phone down anymore, which, frankly, is one of many things modern life has ruined. The song itself, though, is so smooth that fans of Morganway or Elles Bailey — of which I am very much one of the number — will be all over it. It has that same easy class, that same feeling that roots music does not have to be retro to be timeless.
It is interesting how warm and reflective “Patience To Play” sounds. Partly that is down to the voices and the way Isabella and Lewis meld together, but it is there in the writing too. “Polaroid Kids” has that lovely, sepia-toned feeling, as if memory itself has been given a melody.
There are Nashville bands that would kill for “Feet On The Asphalt,” while “Medicine Man” has a tougher edge, the lead guitar particularly prominent, giving the record a little grit just when it needs it.
“She Keeps Time Like A Casio” is awash with gorgeous harmonies, and there is something idyllic about “Hot Rain,” one of those songs that seems to sit perfectly in the air around it.
Even when “Signals In The Smoke” rakes over the coals of a lost love, it still sounds perfect. A summer’s day: that is what Two Ways Home do. Even their sadness sounds like it is being played with the windows open.
The descent seems to hit rock bottom on “Hear A Heartbreak,” where the guitar work is incredible, and it is interesting that even the break-up songs Isabella sings solo have a totally different dynamic. There is a change of perspective, a different ache, and it gives the album extra depth.
“Colder Water” extends that reflective mood before a record that has taken its time appropriately ends on “Slower Kind Of Love.” In many ways, it feels like it would have been at home in the early 70s, moving at its own pace, untouched by the need to hurry.
That, in the end, might be the real charm of “Patience To Play.” It does not feel like a product. It feels like songs gathered over time, shaped by experience, then allowed to find their own path.
Maybe that makes it an album after all.
Rating: 8/10
