Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou - Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou
Review by Jack Foley
TREVOR Moss and Hannah-Lou, formerly of country folk band Indigo Moss, have delivered their self-titled debut LP and it’s for folk purists only!
At a time when the folk movement is making great strides to broaden its appeal and diversify, this feels like a throwback to the basics that suffers as a result.
And that’s all the more disappointing given the support assembled to try and create something special, from the playing and producing talents of The Magic Numbers’ Romeo Stodart to Danny Wilson, of Danny And The Champions of the World and Grand Drive.
Each song on the LP is meticulously delivered, offering a showcase for Hannah-Lou’s (mostly melancholy) vocals, and supported by acoustic strumming and not much else.
Admittedly, some tracks are backed musically by harmonica and some piano… but the emphasis seems to have been placed on stripping things back and keeping things pure.
As such, folk purists will probably lap it up… but those who require a little bit of pace and a lot of diversity in their listens may find the album wanting.
Tracks like England and Half Way Home drift nowhere very slowly and sound, by turns, depressing and dreary – and the sparseness of the instrumentation really doesn’t help.
Just occasionally, the album delivers a song that makes you yearn for more of the same, such as the broken Ruth Drink My Whisky, which somehow charms in spite of the downbeat lyricism and stark backdrop, or album opener Allotment Song, which benefits from a more lively acoustic strum, some Dylan-esque harmonica and some vocal layering.
But such moments come few and far between and cannot save the album. The overall impression is one of disappointment.
Download picks: These Are Your Days, Allotment Song, Ruth Drink My Whisky
Track listing: