The first rule of Album Club is…talk about Album Club. Tell all your friends. Shout it from the rooftops if you must. Just make sure as many people as you can muster listen to these songs
The L word had a lot to answer for. Maybe though, this album is something good that came out of it. This was never meant to be a band, as the name suggests, Album Club started as a group of friends, from the music and arts, congregating in the Laurieston Bar to talk about albums (funnily enough!)
When COVID took hold, it put a stop to their monthly meetings and the friends, including Michael from Zoey Van Goey and Emma & Paul from Delgados, started sending each other pieces of music and lyrics they had been working on. Creativity came into the process, Rhona using a lid from a houmous tub with a hole cut out of it and a pair of tights stretched across it as a pop filter to record her vocals via her laptop speaker.
The resultant album deserves to be heard far and wide, such is its utter beauty and grace. I’m listening to opening song Make No Bets as I type this and there are shivers going through my whole body. I was fortunate enough to see Michael and Rhona perform this in The Big Blue yesterday and I was close to tears watching them perform this song. There is such a delicate vulnerability to the music, add the affecting lyrics and it is a recipe for bringing your raw emotion to the fore. Here he goes again, I hear some say, well I say what is the point in music if it doesn’t touch you in some way, if it doesn’t move you, then it can move along.
Joy is the emotion that surfaces when the Hard Part kicks in, the raucous nature of the music with its pounding backbeat cannot fail to bring a smile as wide as the Clyde. Or the Mississippi… as name-checked in Different Hours, a melancholy love song that spans the Atlantic, accordion bringing that extra layer of wistfulness to the song. Certainly an album highlight for me.
There is not a song on this album that doesn’t touch you in some way. Michael’s vocal on Transmissions From the Moon displaying a pureness that sounds like he is laying his soul bare , similarly on the appropriately titled Fragile and Frail with Rhona’s vocal atop Michael’s adding another level of sensitivity to proceedings.
Side Two opens with one of the highlights from Rhona and Michael’s short and perfectly formed set yesterday, the uplifting soaraway melody of Leave Me Singing ignites a feeling of pure unadulterated bliss. Walls is a pondering spoken word reflection on a relationship, affecting in its lyricism and delivery by Isobel McArthur.
Night Owls perfectly represents the small hours of the night in its quietly reflective nature, almost lullaby-like in its delivery. Never Sleep Alone combines spoken word with Michael recounting a recurring dream, interspersed with a charming refrain. When You’re Ready closes this remarkable record in style, a swooning and swaying declaration of love that fills you with a warmth that feels like a hug uplifting your spirit. This album is just what I needed.
Remember, music is for life, music IS life. This album is food for the soul.
The official album launch gig takes place in Oran Mor on the 24th of June. This will be one not to be missed.
Order your copy from Last Night from Glasgow or head into Big Blue in The Hidden Lane And have a browse…
Album Club are Rhona Dougall, Michael John McCarthy, Paul Savage, Adam John Scott, Cathy Forde, Peter Geoghegan, Douglas Maxwell, Isobel McArthur & Emma Pollock