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The Bride Wore Blues

Houman reviews the album Lea Valley Delta Blues by hot new British act Morning Bride.

morning bride

Houman Sadri

Morning Bride – Lea Valley Delta Blues (Letterbox Records)

I don’t do record reviews. I’ve been contributing to this august organ for the better part of two years now, and in that time have been known to rail against the state of the music industry – even to the point of once begging readers to acquire some taste from somewhere, anywhere. Still, I don’t write record reviews. There’s not enough out there that moves me to effusive praise and – contrary to popular belief – I don’t actually enjoy writing negative notices. Don’t get me wrong; decent records are released every week. I’m no doom monger prophesising the end of popular music as we know and cherish it. I don’t believe that we are necessarily in a comparative dry period right now. It’s just that I’m not that interested in albums that aren’t bad, or are quite enjoyable. I’m after a good, old-fashioned rock n’ roll hero, and those are fairly thin on the ground these days – too much flash and media savvy, not enough substance. Well, thank God for Mark Pearson and Morning Bride.

Pearson remembers that Rock music is a heady concoction distilled from Blues, Country, Folk, R&B and something indefinably other. As a result, his band sound at once steeped in tradition and wholly unlike anything else. Much of the credit for this can be given to singer Amity Dunn, an urban, elfin melange of Emmylou Harris and faerie queen, her voice at once fey and steely like a switchblade wrapped in a kiss. In her hands, lines such as:

It’s the first of January, a day for friends and lovers
They’re already saying ‘she never really recovered’
If I’m written out so quickly, let me give you my consent
Keep this signature forever, now I don’t need a name

from the standout Zero One Zero One are rendered almost overwhelmingly heartbreaking, removing the song from the realm of the merely impressive and depositing it on a pedestal all its own. Still more impressive is the juxtaposition of her voice with Pearson’s Cash-esque drawl. Their ability to harmonise in ever-more inventive permutations allows repeated listens to reward in ways that most records tend not to anymore – one keeps discovering and being charmed by new magic.

On top of this, the fact that the band includes a cellist, recent addition Alexa, takes their sound still further from the realms of the traditional. The rhythm section is beefy, the guitar work authentically marinated in Southern Blues and Americana, but the cello – especially when offset against that voice – puts a dreamlike spin on songs that were already for the most part swooningly romantic. Theirs is a world where the memory of love forces one to see stars and step out in front of cars, where home is the touch of a lover’s hand, a world of lost souls and the ends of worlds reflected in a teardrop. The headiness of all this is complemented perfectly by the ethereality of the package in which the words are wrapped, and as such it’s perfect.

This isn’t to say that the record is in some way impenetrable. This band have a knack for a hook that would make most songwriters weep: I challenge you to listen to new single Time Delay, former single Isabelline or splendid closer Mother Hackney (more on this later) and not find them irrevocably stuck in your head afterwards. These are all good songs plain and simple: no padding, no extraneous noodling. In fact it’s telling that the album consists of just nine tracks and runs for a little over half an hour: most records tend to be too long to hold the attention nowadays and in a way this is a throwback to a simpler era, as is the fact that the record was recorded live in the studio using analogue equipment. This band does not need auto-tune or Pro-Tools. Neither does it need to pad out a thin oeuvre with dull material. For this we should applaud them.

They also have a sense of humour. Closing Country-Blues stomper Mother Hackney is not only a rueful tribute to the London borough in question (and indeed home of the Lea Valley of the excellent album title), but also chock-full of enough truly awful puns to warm the heart of any aficionado of tenuous wordplay. In fact, one pun in particular (I shan’t ruin it by saying which one, but it involves the name of a particular part of Hackney and a set of handcuffs) made me laugh out loud and applaud when I heard it! As a former inmate of that at once bleak and bohemian part of England the song made me homesick, and I’m not sure I have the words to describe how unlikely I would have thought that would have been beforehand.

So I write these words as a service to you, dear readers. You are, of course, good good people and as such deserve only the very best. Morning Bride is the very best. You deserve to own this wonderful album. Go buy it as soon as you can. No need to thank me: as I say, you deserve it.

Lea Valley Delta Blues is released on Monday 12^th March on Letterbox Records and is available for pre-order from Monday 12^th February from http://www.morningbride.co.uk/music/# (where one can also download the wonderful single Time Delay for free)