Back in April we premièred the title track from O Belong, the new album from Fox Food Records boss James Smith’s Good Good Blood project. As usual for us at WTD, it has taken a lot longer than planned to review the whole album, but, as ever, we’re not shy about posting things a few weeks late. As we described in our première, O Belong is a “genre-straddling gem that layers simple guitar, deep percussion and ambient drones to create something lush and warm without compromising on the Good Good Blood lo-fi ideals”.
The album opens with ‘Under a Northern Wind’, a patient and windswept instrumental track which serves to set the scene and introduce what’s to come. It’s the musical equivalent of the almost Bob Ross-style album art, feeling as rich and grand and organic as the distant mountains and swaying trees. ‘White Gold’ is something of a love song, steeped in an aching melancholy with its atmospheric instrumentation and ratcheting, mechanical percussion. That said, the song isn’t muddied with some morbid self-pity, the sadness present is somehow gilded, sounding like a marriage of Frightened Rabbit and Bon Iver if said couple were to retire to some picturesque wilderness. Smith’s lyrics are important too, the simple poeticism complementing the vibe perfectly.
“Quiet now can hear the rain
It drips and runs
Down blackened slate
Heavy heart won’t feel the same
When I hear them call your name”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3851535309 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=3472239082]
‘Come Away the Window’ pairs acoustic guitar with soft breathy vocals, like a dreamier, more pastoral take on folktronica. The percussion on ‘Do You Love Me?’ sounds like someone banging a kick drum in the apartment above yours, forming the almost literal heartbeat of a song strung out on emotion. “Now her hair is growing, she hums a song called ‘O Belong’,” Smith sings, “now the babe is showing and the white fields call me home”. The minimal instrumentation on ‘River Jump’ quivers and plinks behind a field recording of running water, conjuring a sense of meditative seclusion, while, as we said previously, ‘Soak’ sounds at once sweeping and intimate, Smith’s vague declarations both sincere and meaningful, like late night promises you’d only dare voice to a single, special person. If it’s not upbeat then it’s at least redemptive, rising away from struggles rather than falling toward them.
“I can see the light
Shining through
I can see the light
On this hollow night
It’s up to you”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3851535309 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2307973967]
‘The Lend’ floats by with a lazy bob, like the slow bend of a river on a late summer afternoon, before O Belong ends with ‘Wild Ones’, what feels like a distillation of all that has come before. Smith’s vocals are as hazily romantic as ever, the atmospherics warm and cloudy, the percussion understated and constant, little more than a background pulse. The song captures the overall vibe of the album better than any of the others, that bright and honest hope in the face of uncertainty. The majority of the lyrics take the form of questions, but these don’t feel like angst-filled pleas, rather a kind and loving promise to carry on no matter what.
You can buy O Belong now from the Fox Food Records Bandcamp page, including a lovely cassette edition (as always).
