Colin MacIntyre otherwise known as Mull Historical Society is back with a brand new collection of songs with ‘In My Mind There’s A Photograph` which features lyrical contributions from an array of authors such as Irvine Welsh, Ali Smith, Len Pennie, Jehan Bseiso, Louise Welsh, Irenosen Okojie, Paul Lynch, Colum McCann, Yiyun Lee, Alan Johnson, Dan Richards, and Sir Alexander McCall Smith. The novelists were asked to reflect on a single photo that held a significant meaning to them.
The album opens with `Where Are The Heroes` where Dan Richards a Scottish-based Welsh nature/travel writer and journalist ruminates on his grandfather as an unsung hero, he was a postal (ghostal) train night worker. The song has the feel of a train rushing through the night unobtrusively as it offers a service that we never really consider as we pick up our mail from the porch. The Stranglers had `No More Heroes`, Stiff Little Fingers had `Nobody`s Hero`, Foo Fighters had `My Hero`, David Bowie had `Heroes`, John Lennon his `Working Class Hero` and now Colin and Dan have their `Where Are The Heroes` so they sit in good company. Colum McCann a multi-award-winning, best-selling New York City based Dubliner`s father-in-law is the inspiration behind `On Upon A Tightrope` a delightfully anxious contemplative number about Colum’s father-in-law and his walk from his desk in the collapsing second tower to the safety of his family and Colum’s front door on 9-11. A track that emphasises that tragedy is never too far from good fortune. The poignant final sentence alludes to the three thousand innocent souls lost and is harrowingly thought provoking.
`Cattle Bells` is wonderfully meditative and comes from Sir Alexander McCall Smith and set in Botswana with the writer contemplating on life, time, being in the moment, and reacquainting with his younger self after reflecting on a photo of him sitting on the top of a hill overlooking the beautiful surrounds of the Kalahari. The track has Colin`s vocal over a piano refrain with harmonies from the London African Gospel Choir and a haunting violin towards the conclusion. A number that seems to be ponder on life’s brevity. The leading Scottish crime writer Louise Welsh inspired `Charring Cross Canyon` which muses on the building of Glasgow’s Charing X and how perceived ‘progress’ carved a hole through people’s homes and displaced lives. A number that is a little spiky and initially is a kind of head rush before easing up in the second phase and becoming much more thoughtful.
`A Wish We’d Taen Mair` kind of equates to `I wish we had taken more time` and is a thoughtful meditation from Sunday Times best-selling poet and journalist Len Pennie viewing a childhood photo in the garden with her grandfather and lamenting on what was important to her then as opposed to now. It`s delightfully nostalgic but with a tinge of sadness that permeates this heartbreaking monologue on how quickly time passes. I have to admit that it was a track that I played a number of times before moving on and know I’ll return to again. We have in `Gaza On My Back` a number about Jehan Bseiso`s grandfather who had to leave the idyllic beaches of his Gaza homeland only for him to visit it one more time as a war zone at the end of his life. Jehan Bseiso is an award-winning Palestinian poet and Deputy General Director at Médecins Sans Frontières. A dreamy offering about a situation that appears almost beyond resolution.
`We Called It A Lake` is Yiyun Li a Chinese-American Pulitzer prize winner looking back in adulthood at a photo of her childhood accordion band and seeing afresh the dark reality of living under China’s State rule. A synthesised drumbeat and piano lead us through this steady rhythmic composition with occasional harmonies. Joyful is probably the only way to describe `Dopamine Eyes` where Scottish postmodern literary novelist Irvine Welsh reveals thoughts on new and restricted love under the mask in lockdown, the first meeting of his now wife. At times it`s almost gospellike and wonderfully uplifting.
`Budapest` is musically endearingly intimate which mirrors the lyrical substance shared by Irenosen Okojie an award-winning Nigerian-British author who shares confidences with a sister about her seizures. Dublin based Booker prize-winner Paul Lynch brings to light the resonances and memories of his grandparent’s now empty home on `Midnight Sun` a foot tapping bubbly pop song, a nigh on cheerful eulogy of sorts.
`The Soldier And The Waitress` has Alan Johnson former Home Secretary, now multi-award-winning memoirist and thriller writer reflecting on his parents wedding photo, the last happy one of them. We have an almost emotional detachment both lyrically and musically on this unhappy relationship, which was probably the best way to deal with this ill-fated affiliation. The final track `Hillman Imp` comes via Ali Smith, one of the UK’s bestselling and most influential authors looking back at youth/family and celebration of Highlands culture via a rediscovered photo in a newspaper of her mother and sister in her mother’s car. It`s stripped back with piano and vocals with intermittent harmonies but champions the appealing pride that the author has in both country and family.
‘In My Mind There’s A Photograph` is such a well-constructed album and I have to admit that I loved the effort and thought that went into its creation and the contributions from the diversity of authors some familiar to me and others not so. The stories they shared were a mixture from intense to light-hearted, amusing, thought provoking, emotive but always engaging. It`s a tribute that Colin`s creative ability musically that he didn`t overwhelm each song/story but enhanced each. There`s live dates next month and further dates in September which will, i`m sure allow us all to enjoy some of these tracks in an intimate live setting.
Rating 9/10
