Debut album from classy Michigan quartet
It seems incongruous that this record is coming out in Spring. Harvest will forever be to do with autumn assemblies at school when I was a kid. To be fair, the services themselves left me bored, but there was always something beautifully morose about the leaves changing to brown and the dark night’s drawing in – there still is.
These days it means the onset of winter, the suggestion that another year is closing, that all the goals you had set for yourself will just have to wait for you to come up with another set of excuses as to why you couldn’t do them, through no fault of your own, and how you’ll definitely do them next year, probably.
And if all that seems a bit deep for an album review, then such reflection on bleakness suits this debut record from Cold Tone Harvest. There is an inherent, yet natural bleakness about the 12 songs on “After You”.
It’s there right from the opener “Frozen Ground”. The guitar lets out an almost mournful cry from the outset, and in Andrew Sigworth, they possess a vocalist with a rare ability to deliver his own lyrics: “I don’t understand what he needs” he sings here, and he just sounds genuinely bewildered.
This is a confident, classy first cut, and it is matched by what follows. On “Out On The Water” dry as dust rhythms mix with fine harmonies from Erin Zindle, and with the fiddle accompaniment, you’d say it was a country hoedown, usually. Except you can’t here. It beats with a darker heart than that. “Here we are, just hanging round” seems like a key line here, as if there was nothing else to do.
“Change” is much sparser in feel. The band was a duo to start with and this one takes Sigworth and Brian Williams right back to their roots to wonderful effect, while “Random Stance” – a real highlight here – walks the same path as the wonderful Bohannons, and benefits hugely from some superb keyboard that only adds to the atmosphere.
“Adeline” has a more cheery, lighter air, as if the band understand the need for some light in the shade, however, that being said the title track follows and proves that this is a collection that is at it’s absolute best when it sounds entirely confessional and the sense of loss is palpable and very, very real.
Williams’ brilliantly understated drumming propels many of these songs, “Daniel” is a case in point, while the interesting rhythms continue throughout “Stealing Roots” which brings Ozzie Andrews’ bass to the fore as well as a catchy hook.
Each of the band has their own moment in the sun. It’s the turn of Andrew Pace’s lap steel on the sparse “Electric Modes” which is the sound of misery in the darkness.
It is interesting that the tracks on “After You” have very few gaps. Giving a sense of urgency that many don’t have, the album’s only cover “Out On The Weekend” by Neil Young is one to benefit from this approach, while with its military style drum beat and trumpet, there is something of the marching band about “Hold On.”
The last track is dedicated to someone the band must have lost, and there is an emotion about “Wake Me” that encapsulates the record perfectly.
“After You” is never easy listening, but it isn’t meant to be. The imagery, though, the stories it tells, the sheer class in the playing and the different ways it winds its way around set it apart from many debut albums. It also marks Cold Tone Harvest out as a band to get very excited about indeed.
Rating 8.5/10
