TRANSLATION OF ‘SOUND OF VIOLENCE’ REVIEW

A woman in a bridal dress, lost in the dark. She seems to be running away from something, though her fate is perhaps already preordained in the path that leads to her car ending up rammed tight at the base of a low wall. Such is the story that might be suggested by the artwork to Songdog’s third album, a tragic tale indicative of the whole vibe of this absolutely essential record. 

If The Way Of The World in 2001 and Haiku in 2003 came and went relatively unremarked, it’s a pretty strong bet that The Time Of Summer Lightning won’t be going the same way, for it’s easily one of the year’s most accomplished efforts, and one of the darkest, too. “Everybody knows the Devil never goes out in the rain,” warns Lyndon Morgans, the group’s singer, songwriter and guitarist (the other members are Karl Woodward and Dave Paterson) and this marvel of melodic, stripped-down folk never lets up for a second. The ghost of Elvis Costello often hovers, though the tone is lighter, dreamier, yet always full of dark melancholy.

Vocally, it’s redolent of more contemporary songwriters, say Danny George Wilson or even more so Adam Masterson, including in the way some of the pieces are structured, Jerusalem Road especially so. Worn-out dreams, loves thirsted-for, unspoken sorrows, this record overflows with poignant songs, but there’s nothing overdone here, nothing faked.  The context is always familiar, the detail purely everyday, so relating to this stuff is easy and the sublime melodies do the rest.

The band pepper the mix with all kinds of lovely touches, sometimes in the form of a wink and a tip of the hat --- to Lou Reed for the loop The Republic of Howlin’ Wolf, an almost 10-minute long masterpiece is 
built on or the choir effect closing Childhood Skies that the Beatles wouldn’t have turned up their noses at, and I could go on …  In its overall consistency The Time Of Summer Lightning manages to reference an entire thread of the history of rock music. “He’s in love with rock n’roll/He’s in love with getting stoned”. It won’t be long before many people are saying they’re in love with Songdog.