Hiss Golden Messenger
Bad Debt
Reviewed by: Sebastian Mackay
“No Lord Is Free” but thank God my copy of this album was. I love folk rock and folk music; it has a long and rich history and because of that I automatically expect something that’ll stand up. A musician with an acoustic guitar that tells tales that will move and enchant and capture you. The English crowd, Frank Turner, Ben Marwood, Oxygen Thief, Beans On Toast (and many others) carry their folk songs with such conviction (in sadness and hope and happiness and grief) and talent that they’re demanding in a folk rockish sort of way.
But Hiss Golden Messenger is akin to a bored and burnt out Mumford and Sons. There is talent there but it’s lost in the rocking chair, moonshine from jars, shot gunslinging feeling that looks out over a farm of dead wheat and yearns for the days long before Nixon. The tracks are more or less the same. Given there some changes in pitch and the guitar is strummed a little differently. It’s saddening because the vocals are genuinely pained, aged, wise and emotive. But the same emotion ripples through every track and blows across like a tired and dry desert wind.
This type of music depends heavily on songwriting and it feels less than substantial. While it’s music that you may play going to sleep (more for it’s soothing abilities than being boring) it’s not the type of record that you’d play unless you want that trip down South to seem to last much longer. The repetition of the style and sound means no track stands out as particularly noticeable (although “Balthazar’s Song” and “Far Bright Star” will do you no harm) and you could just listen to “The Serpent is Kind (Compared to Man)” on repeat and be not too bothered. Other than that, leave it for atmosphere and not for an album that’ll actively listen to.
Rating: Listenable
