Erland And The Carnival

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On the surface this could be a train wreck and really shouldn't work but surprisingly it does. What we have here is a mix of folk rock, psychedelic, garage and sixties pop with some Scott Walker thrown in for good measure. The word eclectic doesn't quite cover it; indeed if it was political it would be a rainbow coalition. Folk rock is growing through something of a fashionable resurgence at the moment notably with the Mumfords in the UK and Decemberists in the States. Similarly many pure folk artists are recording the albums of their lives (Martin Simpson and Jackie Oates). So where do the curiously named Erland and the Carnival fit and who are they?

Erland and the Carnival is a band, formed in London by multi instrumentalist Simon Tong formerly of The Verve and The Good, the Bad & the Queen, folk guitarist and singer Erland Cooper and Drummer/Engineer David Nock who accompanied Paul McCartney on his excellent "The Fireman" album. Not quite a super group then but a bunch of experienced musicians with musical tastes that cherry pick from across genres but which are rooted in traditional folk albeit with a rather naughty twist. These are by no means "finger in the ear" folkies. As the review in the Times wryly observes they may in fact cause some irritation to lovers of this music with ""Love Is a Killing Thing" conflating a song collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams with another from Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. If the militant MacColl wasn't dead, their temerity in overhauling The Derby Ram may have finished him off".

All great folk rock bands like the Fairport's have of course put their own stamp on traditional songs and to be fair there are songs on here that are more "standard" in interpretation. "Tramps and Hawkers" fits this bill and the previous mentioned powerful slow burn opener "Love is a Killing thing". Alternatively quite what "My name is carnival" is not easy to categorise. It starts off sounding like the introduction to White Room by Cream and then mutates into sort of music that could easily soundtrack retail therapy in Mary Quant's Carnaby Street shop in 1967 and has what I can only describe as a "baggy" feel. Clearly it is a highlight and for the curious the point of entry for this band.

"The Sweeter the girl they harder I fall" lands firmly into the same category, while "One Morning Fair" reminds me of the Charlatans. I am ashamed to say that I have never previously heard the Welsh folk song "Gentle Gwen" and even if I had I don't think that it would be recognizable from this but it's still excellent. There are some songs on here that frankly don't work ("Was you ever see" being a key case in point) but overall this is generally thrilling stuff. Yes it throws up a game of musical Cluedo as you puzzle over the source of a song and their treatment of it. But why not since it works well proving that life is indeed a carnival.

I first heard about this album from the metacritic website which awarded it an impressive 82%. It certainly justifies that score & is one of the best albums i've heard this year. Trouble in Mind is a fantastic track, and a great place to start if your unsure about this style of music. To be honest there's not a bad track on here, but there's not enough stand out tracks for me to award it 5 stars, almost though.
If your still unsure about this album it's available on Spotify, so listen to it there before you buy.
Definitely beats the pants off of most stuff british artists are doing today.

They say that if you hold on to something long enough that it will become fashionable again, and so it is with my love of folk rock. For years my love of artists such as Fairport convention or Pentangle has been derided by the fashionable, but all of a sudden I find myself back in the mainstream. The great upshot is that there is now a plethora of great new releases for me to listen to, after years of nothing much new and interesting coming out in the genre.

And one of the best of the new generation has to be the intriguingly named Erland and the Carnival. What they have done is quite special. Taking inspiration from very old folk ballads and creating songs that tell stories old and new but set to an eclectic backing that is anything from folk to blues to jazz to rock to soul, or anything else they like the sound of. It should feel like an incomprehensibe mess, but the band have created a surprisingly cohesive statement that all fits together very well. It's a dark record; Erland Cooper is obviously not one of life's sunnier characters, and one that is full of depth and texture as the band roam across the musical landscape picking out whatever motifs they need to get their story across.

An excellent album, one that I would recommend to anyone. 5 stars.