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Weird Dreams - Choreography (album)

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Album Review

Butcher The Bar
For Each A Future Tethered Morr Music

Article written by Ged M - Dec 28, 2011

Joel Nicholson, aka Butcher the Bar, is a Manchester-based singer-songwriter who augments a strong melodic sense with a rich instrumental palette. There’s everything here from banjo and piano to harmonium, mandolin and toy instruments - the “everything playing” effect of ‘Sign Your Name’ reminds you of the melodic folkiness of Badly Drawn Boy. The strongest influence, however, appears to be the melancholy introspection of Elliott Smith, especially on the conversationally intimate ‘Sin So Sweet’ or ‘Blood For the Breeze’, which echoes Smith’s fears: “the world’s an ugly face/ a great ghastly place…a vacuum for grace”. ‘Alpha Street West’ also owes a Smith-shaped debt; regretful lyrics are threaded with the catchiest hooks, all complemented by Nicholson’s guitar that shoots off a burst of fuzzy, morse-like notes infiltrating the brain easily.

His first album ‘Sleep At Your Own Speed’ may have been simpler musically, which could explain the guest appearance by Seasick Steve on the shuffly ‘X’, but these songs benefit from the multiple parts that comprise them and the supermelodic sense that binds those parts together. There might be a few so-so numbers (‘Cradle Song’ is catchy but twee in a bad way) but the overall effect is an attractive mix of easy-on-the-ear tunes and a darker undertow that dispels complacency.

Links:
http://www.facebook.com/ButcherTheBar
http://www.morrmusic.com/artist/Butcher%20the%20Bar
http://www.myspace.com/butcherthebarband