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We Are Becoming Islands One by One is the debut album from The Sleeping Years (a.k.a. Irish singer/songwriter Dale Grundle). Like the EPs that preceded it, this album features Grundle's breathy vocals, perfectly complimented by gently plucked acoustic guitars, twinkling piano and mournful cello. It starts slowly with the gentle Setting Fire to Small Towns and the beautifully understated The Lockkeepers Cottage before You and Me Against the World ups the tempo, with one of the album's poppiest (and finest) moments.
One of Grundle's great strengths is his ability to write beautiful lyrics. The words are frequently cryptic, always poetic and sometimes practically impenetrable. Throughout the album, natural imagery is fused with tales of loss, loneliness and despair. In Macosquin, Coleraine he sings ''The wind banks low, draws a furrow through the fields by the wish stone and while the constellations pin us down, one death makes all the dogs howl''. Not the ideal party album, then.
That's not to say that We Are Becoming Islands One by One is all doom and gloom. Human Blues starts off with a Bonham-esque drum beat and stabbed piano chords, and builds to a dramatic, cello-laden climax, and the frantic drumbeat of Clocks and Clones, coupled with its multi-layered vocal effect make it one of the albums standout tracks.
Although Grundle's songwriting is clearly influenced by the acoustic singer/songwriters you might expect (Nick Drake, Tim Buckley et al), this album doesn't stay rooted in the past. Album closer, Islands, with its subtle yet driving drums and unearthly e-bowed guitar ebbs and flows, and is closer in sound to The Postal Service or Electric President than it is to, say, John Martyn.
We Are Becoming Islands One by One is an unusually delicate debut album; so much so that sometimes it threatens to disappear altogether. Fortunately Dale Grundle has written an album that is well paced and diverse enough to never quite cross the precarious line between gentle subtlety and dullness. --Simon Fernand
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, heartfelt and lyrically brilliant.,
By Crebocchio (Bath) - See all my reviews
This review is from: We're Becoming Islands One By One (Audio CD)
It took me a few spins to get used to Dave Grundle's voice (sounds most like early Neil Young to me) but I was soon playing this several times a day. This is a beautiful, melodic and haunting record in which the frustrations and alienation of small town life are laid bare through some of the best and most evocative lyrics I have heard in years. They are a real pleasure to read. He delivers a sombre vision of an oppressive Irish upbringing, which is sometimes bleak (`Macosquin, Coleraine'; `Broken Homes') and sometimes tender, backed by sparse acoustic arrangements of guitar, bass, drums, piano and cello, with occasional Hammond organ. With the exception of drums and cello, these are all played by Dale. This is certainly a melancholy record, but it's moving rather than depressing. Alongside the longing to escape of `You and Me Against the World' there is the peacefulness and touching insight of `The Lockkeeper's Cottage' (listen out for the voice of Dale's father at the end) and `Dressed for Rain',but these are just some of my favoutites from an album which has no weak tracks at all. Marvellous stuff which, in a music world where dross like Damien Rice's `O' is heaped with praise, is almost certain to sink without trace, so buy it while you can. Then sit down and give this overlooked gem the undivided attention it deserves.
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