Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
You either scoff or feel the ominous noise of memory as you inhale the words of your parents as a young child, that you must make the most of what you have, for you will never be able to experience it again. It comes with the new, the novel moment when you realise for the first time that life is not only about adventure, but the collection of melancholic longing for a sense of joy that you can only harness in commemoration, never in the celebration of freshly acquired.
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then when the current malaise and discontent is eradicated, or at least banished, from our minds, what sad songs of beauty and intrigue will we sing to explain away the loss of our time, what meaning will we gather from our friends as they attempt to regrow, to shake off the shackles of the disease that has affected us all.
It must be noted that emotions have perhaps never run higher than they are as the world spins today, we cling ever harder to nostalgia, to the profound sense of home we wish to be safe in, and the effect of Saudade comes closer with every moment.
It is no wonder that the art of the time reflects the mood of the people, in times of revolution, there are pieces created which embrace fire, anger, fear and wrath of the masses; so, it should not be a surprise that one such as The Sad Song Co., the musical alias of Nigel Powell, should be one of a number to highlight the essence of the solitary, the reclusive heart that expresses longing is such a sweet persuasive musical feeling in our current shared familiarity.
In the best possible sense, it is to be hoped that once we are free to be ourselves once more, that we never suffer such saudade again, but that we will always have the memory of it is surely enough, and yet as the listener is drawn close to the tracks of absence and personal internal exile, the knowledge that this album will be one that many will return to is one of involvement, of pleasure in that reminisce.
Through tracks such as These Tears Won’t Cry Themselves, Hastings, Out Of Season, Makarska Sunset, 25th May 2018, and Deserted By Every God, what is realised is the aftermath of possibility made creatively real, that whilst we may feel loss in our repeating thoughts or even lost in the cacophony of silence around us, we will, and must prevail, we need to seek out the beauty and embrace it whilst there is nothing else outside to seek pleasure in.
Saudade is the unexpected memory delivered in musical form, a kindness in which melancholy is witnessed as heroic, not as some believe revelling in misery, for melancholy is honest, it does not lift you to place which is impossible to maintain, but just simply an act of grace; one in which The Sad Song Co. enthuse with wonder and skill.
Ian D. Hall