Thursday, May 09, 2013


Chris While and Julie MatthewsInfinite Sky (Fat Cat Records).

BBC Folk Award winners, While and Matthews, are widely respected musicians and songwriters and this, their 8th studio album, gives indications as to why. Harmonies abound is tracks such as This Beautiful Life and Hope Springs, both on the cusp of Folk and Country. They move firmly into the realm of Country with Shaky Town, Broken Crash Barrier and Come On Over, the latter being the stand out track on the album. I Apologise and Half A World Away are both gentle and hypnotic and are prime examples of their excellent songwriting skills. There are some less successful songs with the slightly morose Nie Weider (Never Again) which has well-meant sentiments but just not for me and South America (Come Home Soon) which is a bit twee but the tight harmonies come to the rescue as they do on the patchy Inconvenient Hero. Gravity is too one paced and sounds a little bit like These Dreams by Heart but without the impact of the chorus. All in all this is a fine album by excellent musicians and top class songwriters. A good introduction into the world of While and Matthews.



David Blue.

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