Post Description

Folk, pop.

Until The Rivers Run Dry is John Blek’s most romantic, relaxed and readily accessible work to date. It finds him at the peak of his powers, although we expect more great things to come.

With On Ether & Air having completed his four-part Catharsis Project, Until The Rivers Run Dry finds the Cork singer-songwriter John Blek embarking on a new direction with a decidedly poppier folk collection with late 60s echoes, graced throughout with strings by Colm Mac Con Iomarire of The Frames. It opens exquisitely with St. John’s Eve, bringing an Eastern feel through a synthesised tabla on a love song set on the Irish equivalent of bonfire night and is followed by the upbeat love pledging title track anchored by Davie Ryan drums with Kit Downes on piano.

Lovelorn, as you might imagine, has a more melancholic air to its gorgeous dusk falling rippling melody line as he sings, “kept wishing my life away/Paid all the dues I could pay/What can a poor fool do/To try to get through to you”. Restless Sea continues in the same warm, relaxed manner, bringing double bass to the table as he croons about “fighting to keep my head/Above the water” and being tired of  “treading the water”, the strings punctuating the infectious chorus. 
The violin-tempered Raven’s Cry is the first to introduce a clear folk influence, Cathy Davey’s striking backing vocals adding to the atmospheric weave and the dark loam of lyrics that speak of being scorned in love, hollow and dissatisfied and “empty as the earth beneath the snow”. 

The slow dancing Once In A While (21/7) calls to mind the classic early work of fellow Irishman Gilbert O’Sullivan; the song itself is about how, clad in herringbone and in the middle of the pandemic, he married “a kind hearted woman” on the date in question, the tempo adopting a shuffling pace for the lyrically impressionist dreamy McCartney-esque Half-Life (“bird in song/Dreaming through the morning/Slept too long”) with its syncopated drums and piano notes.

It’s back to folk pastures in the final stretch, Davey duetting on earlier single Lyric & Air, a waltzing love song that musically evokes old-time ballrooms as they dance “one more round the floor, for the singer and the song”. Come Undone, with both Davey and Brian Casey adding vocals, is a musically darker proposition with spare nervy piano notes and lyrics that seem to speak of loss or estrangement as he sings, “you twist just like the smoke/Curling into the vision of a ghost I once knew”.  With Blek adding shruti box and organelle and Matthew Berrill on bass clarinet, it ends with Floating Aimlessly, a song that upends the sentiments of Restless Sea in “going where the tide takes me…wasting time, watching as the hours fly”. 

His most romantic, most relaxed and most readily accessible work to date, at one point, he sings, “Once in a while I get it right/Once in my life is enough”. He most certainly has, but at the peak of his powers, this is most certainly not going to be a one-off occasion.

Tracks:
01 - St. John's Eve
02 - 'Til The Rivers Run Dry
03 - Lovelorn
04 - Restless Sea
05 - Raven's Cry
06 - Once In A While (21_07)
07 - Half-Life
08 - Lyric & Air
09 - Come Undone
10 - Floating Aimlessly

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWCPHYoGps0