With Paradise Razed, Blyth Power, that ever uncategorizable band produced their last truely great album. In the last ten years they have done some good work, released work that other bands would be proud of, but by the high standards set by their early work, this album marks a departure.
Firstly what are Blyth Power all about. Many songwriters claim to be poets setting their words to music, well Joseph Porter, the drummer/ frontman/songwriter of the band truely is. This is intelligent poetry set to rock music. Armed with a knowledge of Classics, History, Political and Social study and a large helping of wit and word play, we have a modern day mix of Byron, Auden and Rupert Brooke spread over original rock music infused with a flavour of music from times past.
The songs have a leaning towards a folk tradition, in that they are basically stories. Although they are basically fictional tales they carry messages wrapped up in them which are pertinant even today. The imagary is an amusing mix of old and new, such as the opening track Bacchus On The Wagon, a tale of what happened when the god of wine and revellry is ordered to give up drinking,
"And what of all those pretty acolytes
that Bacchus now disowns,
who naked through the summer leas
beside him used to roam
they`ve left the Elysian Fields behind
and bought a Barratts home"
This song is a typical example of the make up of the album. Clever lyrics, yet delivered without any hint of pretention, guitar driven, often punky beats and good use of harmonies. The standout track on the album is the epic Signalman White, with a flurry of vocal harmonies, punk guitars and crashing piano fall into line and provide the power behind a night time ghost story in the railway cuttings and signal boxes of the back end of middle England. A change of pace ends the song in a melodic rant, rythmn guitars and drums hammering home the point.
A complete change of style is offered up next with the piano lead, renaissance like Rowans Riding, a tale of dark spite and revenge of a serving girl over a presumtuous knight. This song seems to reflect the range of dynamics that the band have at their disposal. The past influences of the punk years still echo through some of the album, this is after all a band that can trace their family tree back to Crass, the great unwashed collective who virtually invented the "crusty" scene.
Carlisle takes those punk sensibilites adds a dash of melody and then races off into the distance, bass lines spiral around, guitars through power chords around two a penny and layers of vocals put the icing on the cake. And then the unthinkable happens, they throw in a keyboard solo and then a guitar solo. You wait ten years for a solo and then two come along at once, where will it end I ask you.
More medievalism arrives in the form of Ghilbert de Haace,a very odd old world lilting tune carried and flavoured by the talented Glenn Miller and his accordian. No not that Glenn Miller, the other one who is normally to be found fronting north country folk warriors The Whiskey Priests. A dark journey through the world of Seventeenth century poetry follows in the form of Miltons Schemes, Paradise lost gets a kicking whilst Ben Johnson stands in the side lines. A dark verse and dramatic pre-chorus power us along to a very jolly chorus that puts you ill at ease and makes you think that this is really two songs joined into one for a quick sale.
Social comments often find there way to the fore and Letter from Reiffel examines the state of post Berlin Wall Germany whilst treating you to some great upbeat accoustic guitar work. Burning Joan again takes us back through time, a ballad of a jailer who is love with Joan of Arc and cant understand why she wont return his affections, its not his fault that he is the man that has to burn her at the stake, its nothing personal. Winters Tale thankfully is not a cover of the David Essex song but a mid paced trail through the folly's of trying to live up to the actions of the literary heroes of fiction.
Cold War Comforts is back with the upbeat end of the album, a fast funky bass line is used to hand the simpler guitar work and the sumptuous harmonies. Meanwhile back in the realms of Greek Myth Artemise is having a bad day and Cry Carrion is the musical account of this. The song runs through many phases from up beat pop, to epic rock and comes off almost as a sampler for a progressive rock concept album, but at only five and a half minutes is a bite size and managable rendering.
The final track on the album is Stonehaven, and almost unrecognisable reworking of the song that first appeared on the Pastor Skull album a number of years previously. Its pure pop in the real sense of the world, not this fabricated boy band or computer generated dance rubbish, but a group of musicians playing real instruments to great a great dancey groove and some fantastic harmonies from guest Rachel Swindelhurst really add a touch of class and beauty to the proceedings.
Musically the band have some interesting angles never one for guitar solos, you tend to find that the lead parts of many of the songs are played on the bass with the keyboards also taking a lions share and occasionally something less expected such as accordion. What also stays in your memory is the vocal arrangement. I suppose that if you have such great lyrics its a good idea to deliver them with the right impact and here there is an intricate layering of harmony and backing vocals.
So basically a mix of punk, rock, folk and poetry..what more could you ask for.
"The North Sea heaved when it heard your wedding bells,
The grey skies wept upon the beach,
But who am I to tell the waves which way to turn,
and who are you to tell me what I can see"