Temporarily re-casting himself as We Saw Heaven, Autamata man Ken McHugh has conjured up an easy-listening instrumental classic. And while that could be seen as damning with faint praise (conjuring up images of CDs sold at petrol stations), I’ve got to stress that there’s actually nothing wrong with that. After all, there’s only so long people can go for difficult listening or wilfully obscure musical rough-age for the sake of indie-cred or their bowels or whatever. Of course McHugh has theoretically earned his chops as a producer and solo artist with more wayward offerings and that gives him permission to make music that’s simply nice to listen to.
We Saw Heaven is a lovely listen – beautifully produced and arranged. It’s basically in the western popular classical tradition, with strings, choral parts, harmoniums, and guitar shimmers, swelling dramatically and architecturally in major and minor harmonies around simple central melodies on harpsichords or pianos or harmonicas or guitar or harp (depending on the song) while a reasonably straightforward four-four-furrow is ploughed by the shakers and drums. There are touches of everything from Ennio Morricone to Air to Brian Wilson to Calexico in the production and occasional use of documentary nature sounds. None of it sets the world on fire, but it’s all beautifully done. I was going to say that it’d be nice for him to totally rip up the rule-book, but on reflection I think it’s nicer to hear someone attending to the rule-book with so much care.