Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

On These Islands We Sing, it’s perhaps what we do as a group of people best, a call back maybe to when stories were passed down aurally, when the tone and the delivery mattered to rely danger, to show joyous delivery, or just to capture the moment in something other than in flat voices; whatever the reason from every corner, from Kent, to Cornwall, through Shannon, Limerick and up through the narrow inlets and shores that wind up to the Isle Of Skye, we sing because that what nature and nurture have taught us to do to show our emotions and our prowess in sight of all that have tried to quell our voice.

Ewan Macintyre, and his new band Herding Cats have taken that message absolutely to heart, and in Ewan’s fifth album, and the first one with the creativity of old friends in Bado Réti, Dirk Ronnenburg, and Tam Whiltshire who absolutely place themselves very much inside the inner workings of imagination, of observation in the modern day, and how we should deal with those who seek to control despite not showing their face in accountability. It is in this weaving of subtly, of intrigue, and the finite wisdom of peace that the listener finds themselves wrapped within.

Across tracks such as Oramorph, Beir Air, Comhachag, the incredible arrangement that underlines the World War One poem An Saighdear nach Till, and the album title track On These Islands We Sing, Ewan Macintyre rejoins the dots between the saluting styles as the Gaelic and Celtic overtones mix abundantly with Americana, Soul, and the wonderful elements of Progressive Rock, and with the sense of understanding that comes from having breathed the same air and influences of national identity and how important it is to reconcile and balance uniqueness and collaboration.

Taking its name from a Scottish Islands Poetry Anthology in 2011, On These Islands We Sing lives with purpose and underlines just how the poetic heart lives with grace and the sound it makes resonates with hope and faith in the face of injustice and hate. It is to this that the listener takes their own heart and offers it still beating to the world as a symbol of resilience and resistance; allowing the music to be the balance in all.

An album of great magnitude, not only do we sing along to wonderful sounds, but we keep them in our souls and allow them freedom to fly.

Ian D. Hall