They say you should write every song, paint every canvas, and tell every story as if it might be your last, because, well, you never know. <\/p>\n
Singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist David Longdon was in the prime of his creative life\u2014frontman and co-leader of the rising progressive rock collective Big Big Train, proud father of two daughters, and devoted fianc\u00e9 to the artist Sarah Louise Ewing\u2014when an accident at home resulted in his death almost exactly a year ago. He had come home that evening from another day in the studio working on Door One<\/i>, his second solo album and first since 2004\u2019s Wild River<\/i>. Door One<\/i> was by all accounts nearly finished at the time, with just a few final instrumental bits to be completed under the watchful ear of co-producer and engineer Patrick Phillips. <\/p>\n
For more than a decade Longdon was an amazing interpreter of his Big Big Train bandmate and friend Greg Spawton\u2019s songs, and a major contributor to the group\u2019s songwriting, but his interests as a writer naturally ranged beyond BBT\u2019s typically rather cerebral\/historical subject matter. Door One<\/i> became an outlet for Longdon\u2019s more personal songs, though the musical styles found here don\u2019t range far from BBT\u2019s melodic prog wheelhouse; this is smartly crafted progressive pop within a singer-songwriter frame. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019re wondering how much prog actually factors into that equation, Longdon opens the album with an atmospheric instrumental, \u201cInto The Icehouse,\u201d not exactly a typical choice for a lead vocalist stepping out for a solo album. Of course, Longdon was always much more than simply a talented singer with a rich, Peter Gabriel-adjacent tone; he also played keyboards and guitar (and in BBT, flute). On Door One<\/i> he\u2019s supported by a crack studio team that includes Jeremy Stacey (King Crimson) on drums and percussion, Hazel Mills (Florence + The Machine) on piano and synthesizer, Stuart McCallum (Cinematic Orchestra) on acoustic and electric guitars, Steve Vantsis (Fish) on bass, and Gary Bromham (Longdon\u2019s former band The Gifthorse) on guitars, keys, and textures. The opening and closing numbers also feature Spawton on 12-string acoustic guitar, and sax player Theo Travis (Steven Wilson) features on several tracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIcehouse\u201d works nicely as a scene-setter for the anthemic \u201cWatch It Burn,\u201d whose rhythmic piano hook anchors a riffy, dramatic rock tune tracking the bitter dissolution of a relationship. Longdon was divorced from his daughters\u2019 mother some years ago, so there may be some truth between these lines, but the important part is that the song is powerful, compelling, and insightful. \u201cThe cost of what we lost \/ Was such a hard lesson to learn\u2026 I want you to know that I still hold you to \/ Everything you did and didn\u2019t do \/ When you were cruel \/ And you were so cruel \/ But I was cruel too\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
From that mature perspective Longdon digs deeper yet, as \u201cThere\u2019s No Ghost Like An Old Ghost\u201d makes explicit this set\u2019s overarching theme of breaking through and achieving some kind of resolution with the elements of his past that have haunted him. The music here is more low-key and less intricate than the typical BBT approach, a fitting choice for lyrics this penetrating and direct. \u201cYou can\u2019t run\u2014you can\u2019t hide \/ Because you\u2019re running from yourself,\u201d he sings, punctuating this line with a big spooky guitar solo from McCallum. The squalling, nearly discordant sax solo from Travis is a nice touch as well.<\/p>\n
The explicitly autobiographical \u201cThe Singer And The Song\u201d can feel a little on the nose at times but is delightful nonetheless, Longdon processing in real time his newfound status as the frontman of a successful touring rock band, a role to which he had aspired for many years but only recently experienced for the first time. \u201cThe stage lights burning so brightly,\u201d he sings. \u201cAs I stand completely immersed in the song \/ Just riding this moment \/ I breathe life into the soul of it\u2026 This is just what I do \/ And how I make sense of it all.\u201d Musically, this one has a late-Beatles flavor. <\/p>\n
The initially stately and contemplative \u201cForgive (But Not Forget)\u201d reintroduces the tough yet complex edge of \u201cWatch It Burn\u201d as Longdon asks \u201cWere we just ill-matched? \/ This is why I say with regret \/ I can forgive but not forget.\u201d It\u2019s a heavy one, initially taking a thoughtful and deliberate approach to examining the wounds left when one partner doesn\u2019t have the other\u2019s interests at heart. As it builds, the middle and later sections take on a rather Alan Parsons Project feel.<\/p>\n
Longdon draws from the same well of lyrical inspiration one more time as \u201cSangfroid\u201d leads with an orchestral movement before delving into the heart of the matter: \u201cShe apologized for stealing his youth \/ But be assured that she took nothing \/ That he did not give freely.\u201d This time the lyric is in third person, lending a bit more emotional distance, but it doesn\u2019t make the song\u2014whose cadences move from bright and matter-of-fact to a dramatic crescendo and haunting, extended denouement\u2014any less affecting.<\/p>\n
The penultimate track is the proggiest one here, the multi-segment ten-minute suite \u201cThe Letting Go.\u201d \u201cYou don\u2019t have to keep on doing what \/ You used to do \/ Don\u2019t have to play the same old games,\u201d he sings, using the metaphor of cutting a rope tying him to his emotional baggage to symbolize his newfound freedom. The musical accompaniment is dark and piquant throughout, with soaring guitar and sax solos leading up to the final minute, in which the whole band punches hard into the final crescendo with a sturdy guitar figure, crashing drums, and multi-tracked vocals. It\u2019s a satisfying journey leading to a fundamentally optimistic resolution.<\/p>\n
That resolution is summed up and celebrated in album-closer \u201cLove Is All,\u201d an absolutely gorgeous conclusion that weaves together the emotional strands of the album while delivering a simple and powerful answer to each of the questions it asks. <\/p>\n
As always with albums from English Electric, the packaging and presentation of Door One<\/i> is first rate, featuring an excellent, in-depth essay by Mike Barnes, gorgeous cover art and art direction by Ewing, and full lyrics and credits.<\/p>\n
The heartfelt, meticulously composed and arranged songs found here deliver an honest expression of difficult personal truths, culminating in the realization that the keys to happiness lie in letting go of old hurts and letting love all the way in. David Longdon didn\u2019t know this would be his last album, but he knew enough about the requirements of art and the vagaries of fate to end Door One<\/i> on a high note, marrying hard-earned wisdom to a billowing expression of love. It\u2019s both an excellent piece of work and a fitting coda for a life well lived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10791],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46482","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-david-longdon","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46482"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}