Almanac by Widowspeak (Album)

Mazzy Star-like vocals decorate this release by New York shoegazers Widowspeak, who rise to the occasion for album number two

Almanac is stuffed full of great tracks, one after the other – Dyed In The Wool, The Dark Age, Ballad of the Golden Age, Devil Knows, Locusts to name just five. In truth, maybe aside from the interlude title track, there’s not one weak track here, so it’s frustrating that as an album Almanac doesn’t quite work. The problem for many will be that over 40 minutes, Molly Hampton’s vocals are simply not strong enough to support the album’s own weight and towards the final tracks they really start to grate.

Given the album’s slightly incongruous artwork (which sees Hampton and Thomas sporting a puzzling Little House On The Prairie look), you can’t help but feel if they borrowed a few pages from The Civil Wars’ book and shared some of the vocals the end results would have produced a much more nourishing main course.

Verdict: No filler present

Alun Jones

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