Inbetweens: Withered Hand

Moving on from all the 7″s that have been covered on these pages lately, here’s a 10″ EP from EbM favourites Withered Hand. While the last WH release – the Heart Heart 7″ that came out in Feb. – represented a new direction for Dan Wilson’s project, Inbetweens is more representative of Withered Hand’s general sound. What I’ve always loved about WH, and which was perhaps slightly lacking in Heart Heart, is his ability to take the generic setup of acoustic guitar and crackly voice and turn it into something ultimately rather esoteric. Aside from his distinctive voice, there’s nothing overtly groundbreaking in the aesthetics of WH’s recorded output, but it does serve as a fine canvas to perfectly showcase the quality of the songwriting; to the point where his  2009 LP has been slowly creeping to the top of my all-time favourite albums list.

The title track on Inbetweens might not be WH’s best work, but it is nevertheless very good indeed, and it’s been my experience that WH songs tend to be ‘growers’, so come back in six months and this track may be a firm favorite.  Where this EP gets interesting for me as a WH fan is the B-side, where some old songs are revisited. If you include Meursault’s cover, this is the fifth recorded version of Oldsmobile Car (which I know better as Red Candle Bulb) that I’ve heard, and up until now every version has had some flaw or quirk in it that renders it slightly less than a finished product. That might have been a dodgy drum machine or some ever dodgier backing vocals (“shooby-shooby”?!), but I’m pleased to report that this version gives the song the treatment it has so long deserved.

More controversial, in my eyes, is the final track, (it’s a) Wonderful Lie. Originally released as a Christmas song in 2007, the song was so good that Dan changed a verse to make it less season-specific and incorporated it into his live shows.  This is a recording of that version complete with fleshed-out instrumentation, and it is very, very good.  What makes it sit uneasily with me is that it’s not quite as good as the original festive version.  I’m willing to accept that this might be because I have a strong emotional attachment to the old version – I’ve listened to it countless hundreds of times in the fortnightly period in which it’s acceptable to listen to Christmas songs – but secretly I’m sure it’s because the older version actually is better.

All in all, this 10″ has much to recommend it, both to Withered Hand fanboy completists and casual admirers of really great music.  Go buy it!

Withered Hand – Inbetweens 

Withered Hand – (it’s a) Wonderful Lie (new version)

Withered Hand – It’s A Wonderful Lie (old version)

 

F3NC3 R⅓CORDS’ CHART RUSE: Withered Hand, Delifinger, Barbarossa

Back in February I posted about the Withered Hand record Heart Heart, which was the first release in a three-single subscription series run by Fence Records, called Chart Ruse. Each of the 7″ EPs included in the deal come in a fantastically well designed sleeve, with each one subtly altered for each band, and each consists of four tracks, one of which is a remix (*shudder*) and one of which is a vinyl only cut. The subscription has now run its course, and having already written about the WH record, I figure it’s only fair to give the other two bands a place on these illustrious pages as well.  The bands in question are Delifinger and Barbarossa, and I should confess that before signing up for this deal I’d never heard of either band before (well, I’d seen Delifinger open for WH and King Creosote at the start of the year, but was decidedly underwhelmed).

 

The Delifinger record, much like his live performance, was not quite as good as I’d hoped it would be.  All the ingredients seemed to suggest an interesting sonic palette and more than a little creativity, but Matthew Lacey – who’s project this is – comes across as far too earnest, and the songs themselves are just too slow.  That sounds like a dreadfully obtuse bit of criticism, but there just wasn’t enough going on to maintain my interest; if the songs had been faster it might have worked, or if they’d had more, well, hooks they might have been able to sustain the slow pace.  As a result, this single might appeal to those of a more morose aspect than myself, but as it stands the Escapes EP is a sincere and laudable effort, but not really my cup of tea.

The Barbarossa contribution covers much the same ground in terms of texture and approach, but where Delifinger doesn’t quite deliver, Barbarossa (again, it’s all the work of one man; this time it’s James Mathé) injects enough variety to keep things interesting. In fact, I think the real difference lies in the confidence of the performers; Butterfly Plague feels much more assured, much more decisive, much more confident.  The record is, overall, perhaps a little too delicate for me to find myself really loving it, but it’s still good enough for me to pop it on the turntable on a fairly regular basis.

All in all, despite my disparaging remarks, this has been a rewarding series, and while I may have been rather dismissive of some of the music, the fact that it’s a unified collection of 7″s that sit nicely together on my shelf – and because it came from Fence – means that I’ll most likely find myself returning to it before too long.  In the meantime, the next Fence series – this time called Buff Tracks – kicks of imminently, so now I’m waiting eagerly for that to arrive.

 

Barbarossa – Butterfly Plague 

Delifinger – Escapes

 

Heart Heart: Withered Hand

I finally got round to seeing Withered Hand recently, and when asked by a friend to describe what it was like I must admit I struggled. After wrestling with expressions like ‘deliberately lo-fi’ and ‘artfully artless’ – which apply to the early recordings and not the live sound – the only thing I felt comfortable setting in stone was ‘game changer’.  As someone who attempts to write my own songs from time to time, every so often I come across tracks that as well as simply liking I actually wish I’d written myself.  Hearing these songs can either be an inspiration – causing me to stop the track before it’s finished and run off and try to write something of my own – or (and this is more often the case) herald a fit of despair and self-pity – ‘I’ll never write anything that good’ and so on and so forth… Listening to Withered Hand, however, makes me want to unlearn everything I think I know about songwriting and start all over from the beginning again.

I say this, of course, with reference to recording by Withered Hand (the nom de’guerre of singer/songwriter Dan Wilson) that I’ve had time to get to know fairly intimately: 2009’s Good News album, and the smattering of EPs and single mp3s I’ve been able to get my hands on.  This new record, the Heart Heart EP, comes courtesy of the Fence Collective‘s Chart Ruse subscription scheme (although it can still be bought separately), and will probably take a little while to grow on me.  The lead track, Heart Heart, is fast becoming a favourite even though on first listen it struck me as something of a departure from the usual WH sound (although there are distinct parallels with the Religious Songs EP version of New Dawn).  The rest of the tracks (not counting the vinyl-only King Creosote remix) are in more familiar territory but have yet to stamp their identity on my ears in the way many of WH’s older songs already have.

Whether they do or not, there’s no getting round the fact that this EP is – music aside – quite simple a lovely object to own. To those who question the value of music in physical form I recommend feasting your eyes on this exquisitely designed sleeve, with its die-cut hole and beautiful illustrations.

Withered Hand – Heart Heart [audio http://www.bearfacedrecords.com/EbMBlog_mp3s/WitheredHand/WitheredHand_HeartHeart.mp3]

And for those of you who are new to WH, here’s a couple of the ‘hits’:

 

An Alt. Christmas 21: Withered Hand

[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure.  To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]

Now we’re within sight of the finish line, it’s time to bring out the big guns; none of the songs in this festive selection have been anything less than good, but now is the time to take it up a notch.  These last four tracks are not only great Christmas songs, but simply great songs, period.  Withered Hand (a.k.a. Dan Willson) have (has) just released a new Christmas song on YouTube called Real Snow, but it’s their (his) home-recorded effort from a couple of years ago that really struck a chord with me.

Withered Hand – It’s A Wonderful Lie