The welcome return of Guillemots

Guillemots debut "Through The Windowpane" is quite simply one of my favourite albums of all time. It became a recording even closer to my heart after "Made Up Love Song #43" became the song my wife walked down the aisle too at our wedding three and half years ago. I can't therefore describe the disappointment I felt on hearing second album "Red."  That collection had a real air of a band desperate for a hit single and after the sheer brilliance of  "Windowpane" it almost felt like a betrayal, a sell out. I saw the band in Sheffield a couple of years ago during a tour of extremely small venues and even they seemed to accept that "Red" wasn't really up to the mark as the set was heavily biased towards the debut.

When lead singer and multi instrumentalist,  Fyfe Dangerfield recorded and toured solo material, I 'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought that probably sounded a death knell for Guillemots.

Fortunately, that's proved not to be the case as after a couple of secret gigs in London, another announced in the capitol during April and a further three scheduled in Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham during the same month, Guillemots are back in the game.  Tickets for the gigs are available through the website,  http://www.guillemots.com/  with the venues not being announced until the very last minute.

Further to the shows, new material from the band has now appeared, with single "The Basket" and also a free download, again available from http://www.guillemots.com/ of the title track from the album "Walk The River.

While "The Basket" is a very upbeat keyboard heavy poppy number, it doesn't come across as forced as some of the songs from "Red" and provides an extremely catchy introduction to the new album.  Lest we forget, "Windowpane" also had it's moments of pure pop magic with  "Trains to Brazil" and "Annie Let's Not Wait."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgUXb2RWsOs

"Walk The River" is a totally different (hunted) animal and this is the area where Guillemots really excel.  Gorgeously moody as Fyfe keeps a tight rein on his vocal, with classically understated, but intricate backing from MC Lord Magrao on guitar, the queen of the bass Aristazabal Hawkes and drum maestro Greig Stewart.    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yef2PF2AteU&feature=related

It's with a genuine sense of relief I finish this blog, as Guillemots are a band that mean a great deal to me for all kinds of reasons.  The band are back and on form.