We’re big fans of Psalmships here at WTD. Joshua Britton’s last album, I Sleep Alone, was an excellent example of sad and atmospheric folk rock. As we said in our review:
“I Sleep Alone is a beautifully human, sounding simultaneously hushed and impassioned, delicate and raw. The negative space that intersperses each guitar note has an emotional heft, an almost tangible substance that snakes around like fog. The lyrics are superb, and the whole thing has a depth that requires repeated listens to even begin to appreciate.”
Obvious + Unafraid is the latest release from Psalmships, which sees Britton enlist the help of Chelsea Sue Allen and Brad Hinton. The album is comprised of Psalmships originals and a handful of cover song, all of which hit that same note of resonant melancholy, the vocals as raw and powerful as ever.
If a man is judged by his influences then Britton is pretty much impeccable, with his choice of covers pretty much matching the dream lineup for the genre. From his noirish and grand version of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s ‘Death to Everyone’ (which we featured on our Haints Stay playlist), to a beautifully composed take on ‘Old Black Hen by Songs:Ohia. As if those two weren’t enough, there is also a Damien Jurado cover and a wonderful piano-led rendition of Phosphorescent’s ‘Cocaine Lights’.
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But of course Psalmships is by no means just a covers project, with Britton’s songwriting holding its own even in such great company. From the subdued opener ‘Eulogy’, where his vocals are sometimes barely more than a strangled whisper, to the slow-burning ‘Revocation of the Elk’, each original song is suffused with a sense of pain and sorrow. Perhaps my favourite track is a song that originally appeared on I Sleep Alone, though this rendition of ‘Patience to Undo the Patience’ sounds of lot warmer and upbeat than the original. That said, the track still has shadowy and almost mystical Molina-esque imagery.
“Hardly ever does the moon not shine for me
and, rarer still, that he sings like a priest
so what kind of dreams are the best to have?
what if I never wake up again?”
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There are similar themes on ‘Yven’, the song which gives the album its name (“What if I was just a cliff side, obvious and unafraid? Would I travel through the tremors as they made the hills separate?”), while ‘Impossible’ is perfectly gloomy and morose, just soft guitar and Britton’s vocals and wide open spaces. But things aren’t entirely dark either with a thread of something bright running through (at least some of) the tracks. Let’s revisit ‘Patience to Undo the Patience’ for an example, one of my favourite lines from the album.
“If you find heartbreak don’t come undone
because there are these shadows in everyone
what kind of light should I hold onto?
There is the moon, shining off of you”
Obvious + Unafraid sees Psalmships doing what Psalmships does best. Britton’s style is sometimes referred to as “ghostfolk” and I couldn’t come up with a better tag if I tried for a hundred years. This is folk music in its most distilled form, coalescing from the shadows on a moonlit night.
You can get Obvious + Unafraid on a name your price basis from the Psalmships Bandcamp page.