English singer-songwriter William William Rodgers makes a case for all creatures great and small on his new album Pond Life, an ode to the countryside where life does not flash you by, but where you have an opportunity to stare into the distance, wondering what is that makes a particular animal tick. It is a landscape where he can get away with murder (Turning the Plough), the next best thing to paradise (Eden) and a safe spot for floating in the water without a care in the world (In the Swim).
Rodgers' knack for creating pastoral melodies to wrap around his scathing, but always on point, lyrics is in full bloom. In Hot House he switches between perspectives: a kid, an old man and his actual age. It is basically a short story set to music, whose various endings involve smashing up things and torching the place. Think Ray Davies reinvented as an early '70s psychedelic crooner, topped off with Nick Drake's phrasing.
WWR: vocals, guitars, lap steel, bass, piano, keyboards, percussion
Alicia Gardener-Trejo: piccolo, flute, bass flute
Beth Bellis: violin
Dom MacMillan-Scott: banjo
Hamish Campbell-Legg: drums, percussion, synths
Johnny White Really-Really: spoken word on (9)
Nathan England-Jones: drums on (9), additional percussion on (1) and (2)
Oli Pyper: bass on (1) and (8)
Piera Onacko: organ on (8)
Sam Wooster: trumpet
Pond Life is a self-released album. Buy it from his website.
Tracks:- Landscape with Midges
- Dig It
- Wolf Moon
- Turning the Plough
- Snail and Crow
- Pond Life
- Big Land
- Hot House
- Eden
- Not To Be Seen
- In the Swim
- Landscape with Midges (Zyggurat remix)
» William William Rodgers on Facebook
HCTF review of Four Nights at the Hotel Rodgers.