Talking Elephant 2025
Strange Is The Coastline
Eire revivalists seek all things extraordinaire on the shores of eternity and find everlasting truths in their tunes.
To have issued about thirty albums in less than a quarter-century of an ensemble’s existence is no mean feat, yet when musicians’ inventiveness is rooted in centuries-old lore their creative possibilities are infinite, even though the band’s name might not possess much allure for agnostics. With MELLOW CANDLE’s Alison O’Donnell firmly embedded by now in the UNITED BIBLE STUDIES fold, as arranged by the group’s mastermind David Colohan, there’s a different tradition involved as well, one of progressive folk rock, enhanced by THE OWL SERVICE’s own Steven Collins, and that’s what makes these minstrels’ songs so timeless. From celebrating mysteries of life to dissecting the menace of a stalker’s mind, the scope of “Strange Is The Coastline” is riveting and its melodies are hauntingly wondrous.
The artists take their time to build momentum, however, as opener “Circles And Chambers” proposes a dry pop bounce to ease the listener into this quest, with Alison’s voice gliding over thrumming psychedelic thread before bursting into a colorful chorus, facilitated by a violin-and-ivories splash. The refrain will land on the sweetest of vocal harmonies from all the three sonic dreamers who carry it further, towards the slow communal dance of the organ-bolstered “Gather Words For The Fire” and beyond, and the Irish trinity don’t shy away from an occasional a cappella flourish further on. They finish the woodwind-flaunting festivities of “Old Legra” and the deceptively funereal stomp of “On Silbury Hill” with such vignettes, and start the march of “Til The Worm Turns” without instrumental backdrop – not to emphasize the fragility of ancient sources, but to show the strength of well-tested motifs. And still, the Irish troupe let the dramatic ebb-and-tide of the Colohan-delivered “In The Arms Of Lewes” and the bliss of the O’Donnell-led “Lilac Haze Of Lavender” be electrically fueled.
The lady may go for an even more compelling storytelling in “Hoist The Drawbridge” and “You Often Hid” that tighten the grip on the audience’s heart with each new verse, the collective’s vigor intensifying by minute, despite the hilariously deliberate riff of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” driving the filigree of the latter, yet “Roar No More” offers an idyllic, if merrier, perspective. The aural panorama becomes belligerently nuanced in “Nerano Sailor” and irresistibly arresting on “Viewing The Waterhen” which brings this fantastic record to a close – or, rather, to the beginning of another cycle, for here’s a platter to be spun on and on.
*****
