Review of Musketeer Album by Larsen B
Naming your band after a collapsed Ice Shelf that was then subsequently remembered in a British Sea Power song might seem contrived enough. This album, the follow up their previous 2 EP's, delivered over the past 3 years, is a very English record that on first glance could be a humorous Brit remake of the Nicholson classic, The Postman Always Rings Twice. This time, however, the setting is somewhere more akin to Greendale and the subtitle to it reads, 'Musketeer, The Postman always sings twice!'
Three Hertfordshire men have gone to the stables in Wheathampstead and recruited the odd passerby, as well as encountering the occasional flicker, courtesy of resident ghostly inhabitants. Will, Simon & Paddy could be accused of having at least one foot firmly in the past, even the album cover is from an Edward Hicks painting of 1833. Quaker Icon he may be but it doesn't help when comparisons drawn to Fleet Foxes in musical direction could also be levelled through art depicting proverbs, Fleet Foxes having chosen a Pieter Bruegel from 1559. It's orchestrated folk with waltzing thrown in for good measure charmingly delivered with a very English sensibility and character. The Divine Comedy done not by Neil Hannon but maybe Simon Callow.
Musketeer is a collection of 13 tunes that are never likely to disturb the cut glass or rattle your neighbours windows. What is more likely is that they will wash over you and enter your sub conscious, delicately imbedding melodies and harmonies. They may be a little theatrical, as with the opener Codeine, but most are well crafted and well written songs. Borrowing is clearly a forte of the Larsen lads, the Talking Heads Road To Nowhere providing the rhythms for Marilyn, but made their own with revolving keyboard notes. The banjo's and tambourines on Atlantis could be Hertfordshire's answer to The O's but for the darker lyrical contect..."Our hearts met in Atlantis, I'll burn you in a furnace."
Robots Learn To Love sits among the pack with the unease of a goth in sunlight. The Flaming Lips may have something to answer for here, but normality and the album's best track 'Gold Cup' restore proceedings to meet expectations. The hand claps and often a cappella high notes are delightfully whimsical and the lyrics betray their lack of modernity, "I remember bee stings and nightmares.....honesty....standards so decent... keeping my nose clean."
Drown By The Sea although harmony drenched falls on its near comic production, recalling (Not that anyone would really want to) so called masters of using the English language in song, such as Richard Stilgoe. Red Indians And Witches plays more on the bands strength to evoke a mood, tell a story, recall more innocent times, and drown you in a summers haze. Magnify, another of Musketeers highlights, continues to mine this narrow seem of richly rewarding combinations.
Stitch, Kindling and Tailgate, wrap up the out of time, folksy, but thoughtful fayre. The postman gets his backing singing duties, the ghosts of the stables hear the ivories tinkled and all but the band hear Mumford meets Hannon in a 1973 time capsule of Summer days, sweet wine, love and naive vulnerability.
Musketeer is a pleasant album, cleanly produced with a good heart, filled with well meaning intent. Of its genre though it's nothing that special, it has its moments, but they don't burn brightly enough. They do seep in and out but never capture or grab. Subtle is good, subtle, and sometimes weak, not so.
Andrew Lockwood.
