This website adores modern, intelligent, folk music, and I was very pleased when Melanie Crew and Ross Palmer reached out to me regarding their forthcoming album, Some Other Stories. This is their sophomore work and is released via Gard du Nord Records. You can obtain it on their Bandcamp page at https://melaniecrewandrosspalmer.bandcamp.com/album/some-other-stories You can also find out more via their website at https://www.melaniecrewandrosspalmer.com/
They hail from South London. Since 2020, they’ve released an EP, Away from the City and a debut album, Quiet After Midnight. There is a wide range of influences on show here, but I think fans of Fairport Convention especially will find much to admire. The album features Adam Beattie and Colin Somervell on double bass, Basia Bartz on violin, Nick Frater on piano and Hammond organ, and Ben Handysides on cello.
Okay, so twelve pieces of music to discuss, and I can embed one as a taster for you.
Winning Ticket is our first track, an interesting tale of life, with those who are desperate to win, destined to lose, those desperate to leave, fated to stay, and who, after all, gets the winning ticket of life? Palmer has a pleasingly emotive voice, and the understated harmonies of the couple register perfectly on this track, with double bass in the background. The electric guitar solo when it arrives is nicely emotive, and progheads will appreciate the gentle Hammond organ providing a ghostly finale backdrop to the closing lyrics. A strong start to this album.
Take a Picture follows. Melanie takes on the lead voice here, and she has a voice which evokes fragility, childlike qualities of innocence nicely describing the love felt for her partner, inviting him to find her after she leaves him in the open-air staring at the sky, memories of innocent times to the fore. There is a sense of Americana in the guitar on this.
Close the Book has Ben Handysides playing a lovely cello as backdrop to the main participants singing about closing the book on the fate of a variety of people, both theatrical and historical in a wistful pastoral delight, the spotlight falling on us in a brief flurry of light before all is past, a metaphor, I think, for our ultimate mortality.
Our Captain Cried all Hands is a shanty, the grief of the parting of the sailors at the captain’s command, leaving behind parents, lovers, children, many never to see them again, so filled with danger were these voyages. There is an important innocence to Crew’s vocals here, to me encapsulating the fear of the unknown future inherent in these partings, the violin and guitars providing a mournful backdrop. This is a superior tale of days gone by, a racing certainty for “shanty of 2025” as part of this website’s annual awards. Delicious music.
Blindly Through the World follows, a paeon to the sheer chance of life circumstances owing birth. Some have it grand. Others get it shoved where it hurts, and this lament describes it perfectly, the vocals emotional, the violin crying.
Look Back on Before is embedded below, a gorgeous commentary on the inevitable tendency of us humans to reminisce, and to realise that as much as we might like it not to be the case, we change as we grow older (I believe for the better in terms of life wisdom accrued). I think this is such a nice delicate piece of music, pitched absolutely perfectly, wistful with the clever trick of not descending into depressing “Victor Meldrew” territory. As with the best folk music, a track rooted in real life experience.
Storm Rolling Through asks how a special one can have moved so far away, with the analogy of a storm parting a village or town, the inhabitants counting how much they have lost, the place flooded, but personal defences faltering. The music on this, especially the electric guitar, is lovely.
Unspoken has Crew recalling delicately the things that are not said on first meeting, and being left to make impressions, this patter being repeated moving forward. The vocal on this is vulnerable, and the bass melody by Palmer is strong.
Oh My Darling mourns those who have passed, how time leaves us behind so quickly. The violin supports the words, Palmer delicately passing comment on what is needed to do to complete a life before it is too late.
Count Down the Days celebrates the start of a bright future, and this is such an uplifting number, looking forward and not reflecting on what has come before. The use of the Hammond to create a high, bright, tone is well achieved, and there is a fine guitar solo to see us out, if a tad brief.
Making Lists has Crew exhorting us to get away from planning life certainties, and simply allow it to flow through us, eexperiencing the joy of an unplanned life. There are some lovely harmonies on this, a gorgeously soft number full of “what will be”, acoustic guitar strident in its insistence.
We close with Give a Little More, exhorting us to be more disciplined in how we live, whether this be environmental sabotage, over consumption, personal debt. I agree with this. We live in troubling times, but we can overcome it by having a sense of realism about the part we have played. A supreme end, the guitar dripping with Americana feelings, the harmonies soft, yet insistent.
I like this album a lot. It is an honest work which explores the human condition, and is tuneful, well performed & produced, from artists who clearly care deeply about their craft. As such, very much recommended.