Albums

Album Review: Paul Howard + Jo Clack

Album: Blake Songs
Label: Head Count

Paul Howard, remembered best from his days in 80’s band Tender Trap, has never stopped writing music. On this collaboration with Jo Clack, they take on the force of visionary poet William Blake’s words and set them to music to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth.

It’s an interesting concept and one that allows Jo’s classical guitar and mandolin combinations to flourish. Immediately it becomes apparent that Paul’s strong vocal, sounding somewhere between Wayne Hussey and David Bowie, will dominate as he chews over the words Blake was inspired to write with a sympathetic, yet solid, quality. Combined with the melody of Clack’s guitars are flutes, violins and choral backing singers.

It works well on some of the songs like The Fly and Echoing Green, which incidentally evokes memories of children’s TV from long ago – Camberwick Green, perhaps? On others, such as The Tyger, the combination is too stylised and becomes overwhelming. The standout track is London which paints a bleak picture of poorer times both in sound and wordplay, where “chimney sweepers cry” and “youthful harlots curse”. Howard & Clack want us to be the future audience that Blake was inspired to write for and with material as beguiling as this it’s certainly worthy of your attention.

For fans of: Tender Trap, William Blake, Billy Bragg
Band link = Paul Howard & Jo Clack

Review commissioned by Music-Zine.

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