Muddying the waters between classic country and contemporary Americana, North Carolina duo Mandolin Orange have been releasing music since the beginning of the decade, having already amassed an impressive five albums in that time, or six if you consider 2011’s double ‘Haste Make / Hard Hearted Stranger‘.
This time around, we are lulled in gently by the dulcet tones of multi-instrumentalist Emily Frantz on the beguiling ‘Hey Stranger‘. It’s not unlike Rough Trade’s brilliant but tragically underappreciated Houndmouth in their more reflective moments, and a terrific opening, before ‘Wildfire‘ pays tribute to one Joseph Warren, a key player in the American Revolution who died at Bunker Hill in 1775. It’s a remarkable piece, beautifully laid back, and as a result, it takes several spins before you actually start paying attention to what’s being said and you realise that it is very much a critique upon the hollow futility of war itself and an observation that, all these years on, we still haven’t learned.
Many of the tracks here, I suspect, found their roots in the likes of The Louvin Brothers‘ formative 1956 album ‘Tragic Songs Of Life‘, none more so than the following near four minutes of ‘Picking Up Pieces‘, or perhaps Hank Williams on ‘My Blinded Heart‘. I guess even the title gives THAT one away.
Lead vocal duties on most of Blindfaller’s compositions are once again taken on by joint songwriter (with Emily) Andrew Marlin, a man whose voice could make Hannibal Lecter give up mutilation and murder in favour of flower arranging or interpretive dance. It really does have that much calming power. If you’re the kind of person who suffers from road rage on a regular basis, Blindfaller could well be the remedy to all your ills. Granted, you may be elevated to a state of such high nirvana that you forget you’re driving and end up plunging over a cliff, Thelma And Louise style, but hey, at least you’ll be relaxed about it.
‘Hard Travelin’ is probably the closest the duo come to rocking the town from its slumbers, like a far more restrained version of Drive-By Truckers‘ ‘Get Downtown‘, but whichever guise Mandolin Orange elect to don, whichever path they choose on their journey, the overriding factor that bet nourishes this ten strong set is, well, the mandolin of course. Rarely will you have heard an artist elevate such a relatively archaic instrument to such dizzying heights. This is a recording of great beauty that deserves the widest raging acclaim.
Blindfaller is out now on Yep Roc.
