"my love is in the water"

I don't really know how to begin to tell you about Bo.

You might remember, I went to see her play over the summer, in a tiny venue in Islington, and it was just one of the most magical nights I've experienced. It sort of changed my life. That sounds very teenage girlish, very melodramatic, but it did. I still think about it every single day. Bo Bruce is not the typical contestant that emerges from reality TV contests. She writes from the heart, beautifully and honestly. This is not demonstrated more than in "The Fall", a collaboration with Johnny McDaid, which she released today. It is here.



"THE FALL" - Bo Bruce

It's gorgeous, and I was so pleased to see that the studio version of the song isn't much more than the simple piano arrangement it carried when I first heard her play it. Filmed in the woods in Wiltshire, where she grew up, everything about this song is personal, honest and so incredibly brave, and visually, this music video is stunning, the costumes, the forest and the fire are nothing over-clichéd. Her voice, the way she looks and the way she puts across her thoughts into music are beautiful in all ways.

I am so sorry for the lack of eloquence today.

Bo's album is due out early next year and wrapping up recording at the moment. She is working with heroes and friends old and new, including Danny O'Donoghue, Joel Pott, Johnny McDaid, Henry Binns and many more.

And for now, "The Fall" is avaliable for free download, for limited time, here.

"Halycon" - Ellie Goulding

"Halycon" is Ellie Goulding's second release, following her hit album "Lights", 2010. She's from Herefordshire in England, makes music that is sometimes electric, sometimes more orchestral, and nearly always stems from an acoustic guitar and her gorgeous soprano vocals. "Halycon" is darker and more adventurous than her first album, heavily inspired by a break-up.

"Don't Say A Word", the first track on the album, is the most unordered and beautiful arrangement of Goulding's vocals, which are so angelic and effervescent particularly in this one. Caresses for the ears. It follows by "My Blood", which is a little darker, drum-heavy and twinkles along the upper end of a piano during the chorus. 

"Anything Can Happen" was the first single from this album, one of those that you recognise as soon as you hear her sing that very first bar. Ellie Goulding sings of regret, and hope. This song just soars and swoops around your head, her beautiful voice around you from all four corners. It is absolute magic, a breath of life.

What I love about this album is how natural it sounds; "Only You" kicks off with raw vocals, and a rhythm sounding like clapping hands. "Baby, I'm on my knees" repeats like a chant, music brought right back to its roots. "Halycon" is, I guess, a little chattier than the others lyrically, and it is so beautiful, rising from acoustic guitar beginnings to something bigger and more electronic, a constant variation on volume and weight, until it fades away.

"Figure 8" is so very haunting, a story of love and a call of desperation. It draws in harps, synthesisers, massive pressing drum beats, and it's like nothing she has ever done before. The combination of these instruments and, of course, the gigantic vocals, remind me of Florence, and in a way Kate Bush. It drives off in places you wouldn't expect, a really beautiful song.

Next is "JOY"; a rest and a moment of peace, of quiet. Gorgeous strings lift and dive around her voice. "I'm seeing stars, watch me fall apart." It sounds like dreams, or like the winter, like the walk you take the morning after to think and take things in.

"Hanging On" is a little closer to electronica than most, the kind of song you could both dance to or lie in peace and quiet, a cover of Active Child's. Like most of this record, it lacks the structure we expect from a typical pop song, lifting between stretches of lyricless vocals, repeated single lines and non-choruses, and this is brilliant.

Another odd, courageous and choral opening starts off "Explosions", later bringing in strings and a piano. "It will never be the same." This later combines with drums, and Ellie Goulding's lovely voice sounds just as perfect like this, restrained and quiet at times.

"I Know You Care" is beautiful, so sad and gentle and nostalgic, a song about love broken and lost. "Atlantis" follows it, in which she sings the lyrics in that intentionally blurred way, similarly to Bon Iver, the way that doesn't let you concentrate on it too much. It is so gorgeous, some of the things she does with her voice in this song is just incredible. It is so large and bright, and almost sounds cinematic at times.

The last song on the album, "Dead in the Water" is barely instrumental for its first two minutes, leaving the listener along with Goulding's beautiful voice. It is sorrowful, brings the album to a close in peace and calm. Everything about this album is so ethereal and pretty, and I really believe that after the success of "Lights", she's finding her feet even more.

Ben Howard - Monday 12th November 2012 - O2 Apollo, Manchester

Ben Howard is from Devon, a singer-songwriter who, along with Mumford and Sons, Pete Roe, and such, is lumped in a genre that gets called "nu-folk". He's also compared to John Martyn increasingly often. His album "Every Kingdom" was released last year, and received a Mercury prize nomination in 2012.

Manchester Apollo filled up quick last night with an odd mix come to see him - an audience dominated by girls, but there were a lot of couples there too, and guys in their early twenties and thirties. The old, converted cinema welcomed support act Willy Mason - a country singer, I suppose, he played alone, sometimes with a second guitarist and sang of pick-ups trucks and suicide. He's really great, and I hope he's going do well, especially with Jake Bugg making this kind of thing cool again.

There was the wait, that time of achy backs and wondering if you should have bought a drink whilst the bar was still accessible.

And then the lights went out.

Ben Howard opened with the soft plucking of an electric guitar in the dark, whispers of cymbals. He opened with "Burgh Island", one of the darker, quieter ones from his new EP and it was just stunning. "Diamonds" followed, in which the stage lit up slowly, the entire audience singing along with the chorus.

His band was a beautifully disarranged affair, the drummer played bass at times, guitarist would switch to keyboard and then there was India Bourne, who contributed harmonies, played cello, drums, and bass, moving around throughout the show. It was perfect.

One of the best things about the setlist that night was that one mood would be carried through several songs. Whilst there's still a mixture, two or three lively ones that bring the crowd to dancing and screaming out the lyrics will be followed by a quieter, more solemn moment. His music is sort of a constant stream - several songs drift gracefully into the next, as they do on the album.

Highlights included "Old Pine", a really beautiful moment in which the crowd sang along throwing out full heart and soul, and the incredible energy of "The Wolves". "Esmerelda" is from his new release, "The Burgh Island EP", and brought to the stage it was haunting. With sound and vision, he cast the ocean and the rocks across the venue, and it was so very stunning. "Keep Your Head Up", also, was a moment of such unity for everyone in the room.

Ben finished with "The Fear", one of his biggest singles, and that was a really amazing moment, everyone along the front rows singing and dancing and proving that folk music can and does rock out a lot.

He and the band left the stage. The lights stayed out. The crowd cheered and cheered for an encore.

They returned, to an overwhelming raise in applause and in happiness. He played "Black Flies", one of the more sorrowful tracks from "Every Kingdom", the sort of song you find new things in each time you listen to. The main guitar riff just runs right through your chest, pulses through your veins when it's that loud and atmouspheric around you.

Ben followed this with "Promise", the last song of the night. I love this one because it's not a pop song in the sense that it lacks structure, it lacks choruses and verses, it's just a beautiful train of thoughts set to melody.

"Meet me there,

Bundles of flowers, we'll wait through the hours of cold."

In his lyrics, Ben Howard brings nature alive in a way that I haven't heard anyone else. His music is the woods, and the deepest parts of the sea. Through his show, visuals on a screen at the back painted pictures of travelling along dark roads, crashing waves at seasides, forests. But I think those images were there anyway, with Ben Howard's beautiful words bringing about these settings just through sound. And I think provoking the imagination is one of the most powerful things music can do.

"how she haunted our homes, how she haunted our homes"

"POMPEII" - Bear's Den

Bear's Den are a band signed to Communion records, making the kind of folk music that will appeal to lovers of Mumford and Sons, Ben Howard and probably early Noah and the Whale. It's natural and simplistic, shown especially in the video above, an acoustic performance for Bands In Transit.

"Pompeii" is one of the most beautiful songs I've come across in a while. It tells a story of childhood naivety, grief and acceptance. A soft and simple guitar riff, and the vocals of ex-Cherbourg singer, Andrew Davie, it just instantly touches your heart, in the most impromptu and unexpected manner, exploring and explaining grief honestly and from all four corners.

"Don't cry,
Hold your head up high,
She would want you to,
She would want you to."