Thumbtacks And Glue [VINYL]

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Review When asked about the name of his often-solo, often-collaborative project, Canadian Mark Andrew Hamilton once explained that Woodpigeon was a word he loved because it looks like a rollercoaster when written by hand.On fourth album proper, Thumbtacks and Glue, as on much of his band’s output since 2006 though, Hamilton’s music provides a much softer thrill than those usually found at a fairground.Instead, peaks and troughs are navigated by the song’s lyrics. This is a collection of strong emotions, gently expressed.Many tracks here seem rooted in an ineffable sadness. Opening track The Saddest Music – its vocal here, and again markedly on Robin Song, recalling Elliott Smith – lives up to its name, with walking-pace plucked acoustic strings and a touch of steel guitar.The slow, almost hymn-like Little Wings features a stunning female guest vocal performance, proclaiming “love causes pain”, infused with sorrow as the two voices merge.Look longer and listen harder, though, and shards of light emerge from the grief of fractured hearts.Sufferin’ Suckatash is a song of two halves, opening with its repetition of lines like “It’s over, it’s over, I know”, only to gradually become more optimistic. The music’s upturn with the introduction of cheery sounding banjo twiddles mirrors the lyrical twist in the tale, as the missing-presumed-gone-forever lover returns.Towards the album’s end, too, Hermit’s warm and caressing brass tones surround Hamilton celebrating what sounds like a hard-won victory, as he exclaims – softly yet still somehow triumphantly – “I… I… I’m still alive” over and over again.The use of harmony (at its most lovely on Red Rover, Red Rover and Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard) and the band’s way of taking a sedate, simple tune and subtly, slowly but oh-so-effectively building it up, as if they’re actually adding layers of emotion as it goes on, all contribute to the album’s overall sense of intensity.Just because is not music that shouts about itself, that dazzles with pyrotechnics or showboating guitar solos, its profundity and emotional heft is nevertheless, and perhaps even all the more, striking. --Jude ClarkeFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window Product Description Expert lovers of gently bruised alt.folk.rock tumblings could well have first clocked Woodpigeon in 2006 with the winningly understated (BBC) debut album Songbook . Then came lovingly crafted long players with titles like Treasure Library Canada , Die Stadt Muzikanten and the aforementioned Balladeer . As well as swapping continents since the release of the latter Woodpigeon has toured with Patrick Wolf, Andrew Bird and Junip and quietly, studiously gone about his business with an elegance which befits his winningly understated nature. 'Thumbtacks And Glue' rolls out the fulsome red carpet, strings and all. Backed at various points by mellotron, violin, harpsichord, oboe and French horn, as well as the more traditional rock gear and heaps of backing singings , here is Woodpigeon in his creative element: large of heart, subtle of melody and never afraid to fray a nerve or two, judging by the way the pluckily intelligent Robin Song sounds like a fraught Death Cab and the discordant squiggles of The Saddest Music In The World make like an irked Grandaddy. Elsewhere you may well be able to hear whispered snatches of Elliot Smith, of Simon & Garfunkel, of Badly Drawn Boy...of men with their hearts in the right place, their hats on their heads and their art at the top of the agenda.