Angel Air 2015
Emergency Love
Passion needs a quick fix sometimes – as applied by the “All The Love In The World” co-writer.
“When I’m reaching out, I don’t have to shout,” sang Andy Davis in 1980, and his third solo album is a fairly intimate affair, indeed, one demanding a gathering of family and friends in front of a fireplace. There’s no extravaganza of STACKRIDGE, no overt mellifluousness of THE KORGIS – two bands the Englishman helped form – so “Emergency Love” could’ve carried a homespun feel if it didn’t rock from the start. Still, the “ooh’s” and organ wrap the riff of “Rain Rain Rain” in spiritual attire, contrasting Davis’ dry voice, before Andy Latimer’s guitar in “Baby Good For You” offers an effervescent uplift, and “Magdelene” a fiddle-drenched plea to not blow out the flame.
The knock on heaven’s door, taking a hymnal turn in the title track, may stop at the sparse skank of “Nightfishing” with its steel guitars’ twang, while “Charlie’s Dead” paints patinated pictures on the way down memory lane towards “Downtown Lights” – a darkened cover of THE BLUE NILE’s ballad. Yet, as if to oppose “Peacock Of The Universe” referring to wisdom-preachers, who the artist hates rather than weirdos he likes, “Loving You Too Long” is a Shakespeare-citing soulful anthem which picks up where Otis’ classic left off. What’s left when the passion has burned, then? Look for the answer in the orchestral swell behind “The Ghost Of Love”: a dramatic, if soothing, finale to a warm, welcoming record – a beacon for those who feel lonesome tonight.
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