Richard Warren returns with a new studio album ‘The Wayfarer‘, released on 17 October 2011 on TV Records, the follow up to his critically acclaimed debut ‘Laments‘. Heavy driving folk-punk, full of fire and working class pride. Think Tim Hardin meets Alan Vega.
Nine songs written and recorded in a cellar through the winter of 2010. His most elemental compositions to date, stripped to a brutally sparse frame and occasionally decorated with thunderous, Spector-charged arrangements, his newly cultivated baritone slur conjuring up spirits of the death-balladeers of the Fifties. “It’s a collection of raw sketches” explains Warren, “I got tired of lengthy, expensive studio trickery, life’s too short.”
Right from the opening, echo-soaked, garage-soul lullaby ‘Rivington Street’, you sense that Warren’s view of the world is witnessed through a dim, despairing eye rather than a rose-tinted lens. (This is reflected in the wonderfully stark, monotone packaging.)
At the record’s heart lies the title track, a three-part, epic protest song. It drags us through some unfamiliar, driving folk-punk and is full of the fire and working class pride which seeps into the veins of the rest of this deep yet uncomplicated set.
Warren’s 2010 debut ‘Laments’ was heartily received, the NME stating, “It feels like Alex Chilton passed through the studio on his way out of this world.”. The good news is that Alex is still here, guiding the low-down, blues-pop of ‘The Lonesome Singer In The Apocalypse Band’ and the rockabilly swagger of ‘Johnny Johnny’. But this time round he’s also called in the ghost of Jeffrey Lee Pierce to approve the heavy southern sway of ‘The Willow’ and ‘The Backslider’, and the spirit of Jimmie Rodgers to watch over the country-weepers ‘Through The Fire’, ‘Wasteland’ and ‘My Heart (Ragged And Broken)’.
Warren was born in a small mining town in the midlands of England in 1973. Since beginning his musical career in the mid 90s he’s never had the opportunity to rest on his laurels, and that’s no doubt why his career has remained so mercurial.
From the dynamic power-pop of ‘The Hybirds’, to an ephemeral burst of cult success as sonic explorer ‘Echoboy’, not to mention a few revolutions of the planet as guitar-man for hire with Spiritualized and Soulsavers (feat. Mark Lanegan).
He’s been out road-testing ‘The Wayfarer’ live and the shows have been described as “Lynchian”, one reviewer also commenting that they are the “songs of a man who’s seen it all and was largely unimpressed”.
‘The Wayfarer’ will be available on CD (TV013CD) and vinyl (TV013).
An alternative ‘stripped down’ mix of the album will be issued free with No. 79 of Bucketfull Of Brains magazine (TV013CDBOB).
The tracklisting is as follows:
1. Rivington Street
2. The Lonesome Singer In The Apocalypse Band
3. The Wayfarer
4. The Backslider
5. Johnny Johnny
6. Through The Fire
7. Wasteland
8. The Willow
9. My Heart (Ragged And Broken)
Nine new promo films will be available to watch online (uploaded one a week in the run up to the album’s release).
Live dates confirmed so far:
Sunday August 28
London, The Apple Tree – afternoon show (Come Down And Meet The Folks club)
Sunday 18th September
SXSC Festival
The Railway Inn
Winchester
WITH RICHMOND FONTAINE
Thurs October 20
London, The North Star (What’s Cookin’ club)
