AMIGO THE DEVIL
Yours Until The War Is Over
(Liars Club Records)
Occasionally an Album comes along and takes you hostage, there is no option to simply write a quick review espousing its many attributes, describing the colours of the music therein for a public waiting on recommendations to investigate, or avoid. With 'Yours Until the War is over' Amigo the Devil proves to be nothing short of captivating. One of those rare albums that you're passed to listen to and the sheer magnitude of it changes your expectations of music, reminding you that the musical landscape extends on beyond the horizon and that constraining yourself to what you can experience from a stationary position isn't an option.
There has, without a doubt been a self indulgent amount of time spent with this album on my part. Starting from the eye widening 'wow’ and collection of exclamation marks alongside the track list that defined that first listen, to finding myself overcome with emotion whilst it formed the soundtrack for my first trek of the.season. In short, to say this Album is special is nothing short of an understatement and does it a disservice. I find increasingly that I want to recommend ‘Yours until the War is Over’ to friends, neighbours, strangers in the street, what the hell even to my mortal enemies because this needs to be heard. Alas, I fear some of those would write it off without giving it a chance, certainly at first glance this is another sad sounding man on guitar and occasionally banjo. Which undeniably falls straight into the 'Poogly will love this music’ category but, it's oh, so much more than that. However I fear Amigo the Devil would fare no better than Nick Cave did during my teens, when all about me had yet to recover their heads from the previous years Blur vs Oasis excitement. (Don’t judge them too harshly, this was rural Lincolnshire in 1996 - there were still, I suspect gangs of luddites chasing cars with pitchforks).
Flowing throughout the album a steady undercurrent of darkness provides a raw and at times visceral reminder that music isn’t just about entertainment. Done well it remains a deeply affecting means of communicating stories that words alone can’t convey, this is in essence folk music - just without the herbs and the hey nonny nonnies…
I can’t bring myself to condense my notes from my first few listens to form a succinct review, better perhaps to let those first impressions, those voice notes recorded to self be transcribed.
Hanging By The Roots (!! "it is a bit Murder Ballad blues")
I cannot shake the belief that I should be enveloped by cigar smoke, sipping an old fashioned, draped languorously across an armchair whilst I listen to this. Slow, bluesy melancholia setting the scene for the album that is about to unfold, but not remotely the tone.
It’s All Gone (unexpected echoes of the Kinks in a Balkan way)
This song had me let out a giggle of delight, opening with a Banjo refrain that led me to pause and listen to a Kinks track (Alcohol) the comparison ends there, this is a Balkan tinged foot stomping track with a lyrical refrain that will wander through the recesses of my mind and slip out to bemuse people who don’t take my recommendations seriously, but do a good line in asinine conversation about which is stronger - water or rock.
I’m Going To Heaven (!!!!!! this, I think is my favourite so far)
You’re going to need to dance when you listen to this, it’s a catchy tune about drug fuelled vengeance that somewhere along the way becomes a spoken refrain, confused and lucid whilst not quite making sense before launching back into that foot stomping refrain with a slightly altered chorus - which if you’ve never taken Ketamine you won’t relate to at all.
The Mechanic
For a moment, I thought this was a love song, and in a way it is. But not the ‘right kind’, it stops me in my tracks every time. It hits a little close to home, as I process the events that preceded a time in limbo. If you need a song to slow you down, to release some sadness into the ether as you sit, eyes closed and somber, this ones absolutely for you.
Once Upon A Time At Texaco Pt. 1 (!!!! Banjos!)
And again the dancing begins, this is storytelling at its finest. I can’t find anything I don’t love about the track and may have startled a gaggle of dog walkers as I rounded a bend in the river dance-walking like no one was watching sporting a grin that threatened to separate my head at the hinges.
Barrel And Staghorn (!?)
The production on this one goes beyond my expectations, an unanticipated break from the folk music that fills the listener with foreboding.
Agnes
Falling squarely into the realm of ‘this is a song I need to see performed’, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this track, I’m just left with the sense that on record it’s lacking the gravitas to really land.
Cannibal Within (!! more songs should have a breaking glass)
Like an oversized, eerie shadow in a children's book, this track rears up behind you with a sense of foreboding. I don’t often think of a Banjo as a particularly dark instrument, and yet - in the right hands here it is, building tension whilst the lyrics loom large.
Garden Of Leaving (!!!!! my heart has been broken, what *is* this Album)
I’ve never been hit by a bus, but I’m close to certain that the sudden sinking as your soul leaves your body for a moment this track brings on might be akin to the pain on impact. This cuts a little deeper with every repeated listen.
Virtue And Vitriol
Another song, which in isolation is exemplary and in the context of the album provides a little recovery time from the previous track, without letting up on the sadness.
One Day At A Time (!!)
Exhale, let the lightness of something a little bluegrass return the tap to your toes. Juxtaposed with the actual theme of the song, it still manages to raise a smile.
Stray Dog (!!!)
Cemented firmly on my wall of *this one* songs, I can’t not love this song - it’s whisky drunk, howling along and dancing at the back material. A maudlinly hopeful track, again - one I can’t wait to see live.
Closer ( !!!!)
This is the perfect ending, breathtaking.
Afterword…
The production on this album is pitch perfect, everything resonates as it feels like it should. It feels raw, cathartic and at times like a lot of fun has been captured in the recording. Letting the range of vocal styles take on the magnitude of the words they’re providing. Those quiet inhalations, the unpolished rasps. The kind of sounds you sometimes miss out on, on records creating a sense of connection to the music. Rather than over polished and impersonal pop songs, this album feels like it’s right there with you not recorded for your future reference.
I cannot recommend this enough, sometimes we all need to feel a bit broken to understand the world - and this seems like the perfect way to do just that.
