Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Album Review - Acoustic Heart - Raintown

  


Its been a while since we’ve had an album from Raintown, but they have been busy both playing, recording – and living life with two young children!  When we saw them at Country In The Afternoon, they promised us new music and previewed some of this as part of their set.  Their new Album Acoustic Heart is finally here, with nine new songs alongside reimagined versions of Raintown’s previous songs including Writing on the Wall and Light the Fuse Up.

 

When asked about the album, Claire McArthur Bain said

This record takes an inward look at who we are as musicians and the true essence of Raintown. We took inspiration from the Transatlantic Sessions which brings together the best music of Nashville, Ireland and Scotland – three areas whose music has inspired us greatly over the course of our career. 

We wanted to peel away the layers with Acoustic Heart, unveiling the heart of each track and song. With Stevie’s rich background in trad music and our own unique perspective on country music and songwriting, we felt we had the appropriate tools to see our musical vision for this album come to life.

 


Play it Loud, is a superb opener for the album, excellent instrumentation (with the usual unusual mix of instruments, especially from Stevie Lawrence!) before Claire starts singing about not going out – is this autobiographical Claire?  Opening the album with such an uptempo joyful song is a great idea – it’s the emotion we felt when we got the album!  The tempo varies, the energy is there, and we agree with the demand to play it loud!

Day In The Sun has a wonderful Celtic feel and features Paul on lead vocals, while Claire returns for the plaintive My Whole World, opening with the emotive line “Wedding Dress For Sale” and accompanied by simple guitar and wonderful violin from Fiona Cuthill  Red Dress takes the tempo back up with an almost Honky Tonk feel, incorporating piano and horns on a track sure to get you tapping your feet if not up and dancing! 

My Drum My Beat is pure Raintown from the combined vocals to the music while Light The Fuse Up gives us almost a minute and half of instrumental intro ahead of the vocal showing that Raintown is very much a collective band.  In Your Heart shows how much power Claire can out into what is essentially an acoustic track and Run With The Night shows how much Raintown can mix styles and genres to create great, fun music. 

The stripped back cover of One Love is simply genius.  When they performed this live, you could see people taking a moment to connect the song to 90s Boy bands!

 


These Tears Tonight and an acoustic rendering of Writing On The Wall take us to the album’s final track Thankful For It All.  A slow, mellow track with again a superb blend of traditional instruments accompanying the acoustic guitar, it feels like a perfect way to end, with an element of reflection in the lyrics and an underlining of the Celtis influences on all of the music.

 

The entire album is well put together, and feels like a live gig in the order of songs, changes of tempo, changes of lead and the backing musicians who are allowed to come to the fore.  The list of instruments used in the recording is quite impressive, including as it does fiddle, viola, drums, harmonica, accordion, piano, Uilleann pipes, whistles five-string banjo, cello, dobro, saxophone, trumpet, acoustic guitar and snare drum.

Acoustic Heart really is fusion music at its very best, and, quite possibly, Raintown at their very best.

 

You can download and stream the album from Friday 26 April, and catch Raintown live at a number of forthcoming live performances.  

For more details find them on Facebook and Instagram and follow them on Spotify


If you've enjoyed this review, please give us a follow on our Facebook page and on our Insta 

 


No comments:

Post a Comment