Buswell
Buy Me New Shoes EP
I hope Shaun Buswell and his band won’t sue me for saying this, but this is a nice album. Musicians usually hate that word, preferring to be called edgy, dangerous, powerful or any other more confrontational descriptions you care to mention, but in the case of ‘Buy Me New Shoes’ the word nice is entirely justified. Piano, drums, bass and additional violins caress the listener, while the vocal interplay between the smooth voices of Shaun and Becky is a neat touch.
That’s not to say you couldn’t call this album provocative. ‘Don’t Go Wasting Time’ is a clarion call against apathy and the wasting of a life, but all borne out over the sweetest of folky 6/8 grooves, while the slightly more taut ‘The Drugs Are Making You Love’ is passionate in its rejection of drug-induced romance. This song also features some nice violin flourishes.
It’s obvious that Buswell has a story to tell and an interesting history. The mournful ‘Between the Muders and Death’, with piano to the fore, and beautifully augmented by brass and woodwind, is a beautiful instrumental, building to a haunting crescendo at its climax and acting as a kind of overture for ‘Sleep’ which is a beautiful ballad, almost more a lullaby.
If you’re a fan of modern folk or simply want an anecdote to the sheer brash volume of most current music, you could do worse than give ‘Buy Me New Shoes’ a spin.
Guest article from Haydon S.
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