Almost a decade on from his widely-acclaimed (Conor Oberst approved) debut Where The Humans Eat and five years since his last long-player, If The Ocean Get’s Rough, Willy Mason is back with what is his most fully realised collection of songs.
Mason has been on the road with Mumford & Sons of late. However, little of their foot-stomping has rubbed off. Produced by Dan Carey (MIA, Kylie), Carry On veers away from the lo-fi folk stylings of his earlier output. The record has a distinct post-rock sheen, with more than a few electronic flourishes. ‘Shadows In The Dark’, for instance, has a beat box rhythm, layers of keyboards and a voice drenched in reverb. Verging on dub reggae, ‘Restless Fugitive’ is hypnotic and rhythm-driven, while the jaunty ‘Pickup Truck’. with its’ Beatlesque melody is eminently likeable and radio-friendly.
His gravelly voice carries echoes of the American heartland. The title track is a sombre, stripped-down country ballad in a Kris Kristofferson vein. Elsewhere seemingly slight tracks such as ‘Into Tomorrow’ and the lovely, loping ‘Painted Glass’ slowly reveal themselves as weightier tunes with repeated listening. Closing track, ‘If It’s The End’ isn’t the fatalistic rumination the title suggests. Rather, it is an uplifting paean to the future with Mason crooning “let it begin, let it unfold again…”
COLM O’HARE