The prospect of rock joining up with poetry is rarely a good one. For every "Nights in White Satin" with its spoken word ending, there's likely a dozen Doors records with Jim Morrison warblings on them which should be thrown into the fire. That said, I'm happy to report that this new record from The Catenary Wires and poet Brian Bilston is a smart piece of work. The words of Bilston blend nicely with the riffs of The Catenary Wires, with the vocals of Amelia Fletcher adding the emotion and nuance. Sounds Made By Humans is just a wonderfully engaging bit of business.
A track like "Every Song on The Radio Reminds Me Of You" strikes out for a literate space, one where the words of Bilston remind us of tunes and lyrics from our past, while Fletcher's vocals guide this one towards a more emotional space. Elsewhere, the decidedly McCarthy-esque "Might Have, Might Not Have" finds Bilston pondering what might have been, and what wasn't to be. The instrumentation by Rob Pursey, Ian Button, and Fay Hallam is perfect here, enough that one could say that even without Bilston's poetry, this would be a lush number indeed. From the doomsday-minded "Out of the Rain" to the witty "31 Rules for Midlife Rebellion", Sounds Made By Humans pleases in myriad ways, sometimes surprisingly so.
This record is likely to surprise people. I admit that I was half-expecting the band to be backing the poet. However, Sounds Made By Humans is a solid Catenary Wires album which just so happens to have a poet mixed in with the band. Not once does the pairing feel forced. Just the right kind of clever, Bilston's poetry seems a natural fit for this lot, and while I'd love for another album from The Catenary Wires, I can't say I'd be disappointed if it was a sequel to this offering.
Sounds Made By Humans by Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires is out on 9 May via Skep Wax. Details below.
[Photo: Simon Robinson