The new album from Swindon's very own MR LOVE & JUSTICE is released on MONDAY 19th OCTOBER 2009.
WATCHWORD is the impressive new album from
Swindon-based acoustic folk/pop band MR
LOVE & JUSTICE - the follow up to their 2004 album “Homeground”. Whilst
building on the acoustic folk/pop foundations of their previous release,
Watchword marks a development for the
band with it’s wider musical palette - including string and brass arrangements
from Marcus De ‘Freitas that
underpin Steve Cox’s crafted,
intelligent song-writing, the shimmer of the beautifully mixed acoustic and
electric guitars, layered vocal harmonies and above all else the memorable
melodies that run throughout the album.
The album features a number of notable guest appearances
including contributions from keyboard player Barry Andrews (XTC/Shriekback), Canadian singer/songwriter/guitarist
David Celia, and his fellow
Canadians keyboard player Joan Besen
(Prairie Oyster) and bassist David Headon (Invisible Inc.) who add
to the contributions from some of Swindon’s finest
musicians with contributions from Rob Beckinsale, Nick Weaver, Brendan Hamley
and Matt Wood.
With influences ranging from XTC, The Beatles, Richard Thompson, Pink Floyd
amongst others, Watchword comprises 13 new and original tracks mainly from the
pen of singer/songwriter Steve Cox who has gathered around him a talented
collective of musicians delivering a varied and ambitious set of folk-tinged
songs and styles over the course of the albums 54 minutes running time.
The album cover artwork features paintings by Swindon artist Ken White. (www.kenwhitemurals.co.uk)
Lyrically
the album covers a broad range of subjects from the personal and romantic to
the political, historical and contemporary. The folk tradition is most clearly
represented in songs such as “We Raise The Watchword” and “We The Chartists”
which recall the nineteenth-century radicalism of the Tolpuddle Martyrs and The
Chartists – the latter group’s call for Parliamentary reform having strong
echoes in current political affairs.
Contemporary concerns are emphasised in tracks such as the hinted at
menace of “Blood & Oil” and the weary and knowing nod to binge drinking Britain in “Sunday Morning
Sunset Town”.
More timeless concerns are reflected in the nostalgic “The Shilling Folk” and
timeless themes of seasonal loss and renewal represented in the elegiac “Build
A Fire”.
