When you’re feeling low, not angry or resentful,
but that feeling when it seems as if life is conspiring
against you, when a friend’s been hurtful or a
lover’s left (finally or suddenly) or you’ve
just lost your job and don’t know what to do next...
who do you turn to?
Sometimes family or other friends aren’t quite
what you need or they’re not around at the exact
moment you need them. You feel like you need some time
to yourself, to gather your thoughts, but the silence
steals up on you and seems to hum too loudly in your
ears. You think it might be a good idea to put on some
music, but wonder what would help rather than hinder
you. At such times, electronic music presents a singularly
cold shoulder, disco is too upbeat, jazz too knotty,
new wave too garrulous. For a moment you think a band
like Joy Division might be your answer, but quickly
realise that, however beautiful their music, you don’t
want to fall any further than you already have. It seems
like you need a human voice whose timbre speaks of their
own struggles and experiences. The voice of somebody
you don’t know, but whose tone offers you their
knowing sympathy and, ideally, an undertow of hope.
Vashti Bunyan’s gentle and remarkably intimate
voice is a generous gift to anyone, whether they’re
feeling waylaid by the world or not. If you’ve
read anything at all about her, you’ll know that
Lookaftering is only her second album in 35
years, succeeding a debut that fell into a deep well
of silence. You may have read that the likes of Max
Richter, Devendra
Banhart and Joanna Newsom have contributed their
talents to this new record. Apart from the possibility
that these facts might lead you to her door, they’re
unimportant.
There’s a private joy and a maturity that speaks
of Vashti Bunyan’s sixty years on this earth that
shines through the simple acoustic arrangements of each
and every one of the eleven tracks and thirty five and
a half minutes of Lookaftering. It is an album
whose very existence argues for a more contemplative
approach to living through the few, spare decades allotted
us. As she sings: ‘Life’s getting lost in
mending gaps in their fencing, all I ever wanted was
a road without end'.
Colin Buttimer
4.5/5 |
