This is the first time I hear someone sing about exhaust pipes in such a pleasant voice. It's actually the first time ever I hear someone sing about exhaust pipes. I would have imagined it to be more like a German industrial noiserock band doing it. This is not that, but a contemporary pop-folk band from the East English count(r)yside, a quintette partly rooted in modern times: mostly traditional acoustic instruments with modern day, clever lyrics. Quite a few instruments on stage (on average two instruments per member who are all clearly competent musicians):
- percussion,
- guitar,
- banjolele,
- bass guitar,
- double bass,
- concertina,
- violin,
- mouth harp (pretty cool and something I don't hear a lot these days, although we have the same kind of instrument in old Swedish folk music ("mungiga")),
- ukulele,
- keyboard.
If allowed to speculate, I could weave a story full of lover's woe: So, the singer is stuck in traffic, getting late to a meeting with their love interest, with not much else to look at than the car in front of them. "Seven hills" are apparently in the way. Is this a reference to a city built on seven hills? That would make sense, since the city, with its traffic jam, is clearly in the way. Like, modern life gets in the way of love? Then, getting revenge for the other's cheating. Going back home, like home home, but the road is long. Meeting up with childhood friends at the pub and talking shite about what was once their love interest. Finally, the car breaks down… very symbolic. The album ends with an instrumental mood piece.
Stand-out tracks:
- Track #2, Careless Creek: sounds the most danceable? clever lyrics:
You’ll be picked up by a boat, \\ We all know the guilty float \\ You’ll find some driftwood to clutch \\ Till you’re rescued by the Dutch
- Track #3, Troll On the Knoll: unusual structure which fits the drama, changes in tempo and time signature, switching back and forth,
- Track #5, Banterer's Regret: mouth harp Favourite tracks: Seven Hills, Careless Creek, and Banterer's Regret.
Side-notes:
- You can find many of their live performances on YouTube.
- Bonus points for written lyrics, so I can properly appreciate the clever bits.
- At first, I guessed that their band name, "Hedgeriders", had to do with rowing—since most of them apparently met through rowing practise—but after some research, it seems to be more about "hedge-witchcraft", of which hedge-riding is a part. It could still be a good name for a rowing team, though. :)
- Quite a few cities—in the world, but also in England—were allegedly built on seven hills.
- YouTube videos about English jigs are outnumbered by videos about Irish jigs, although someone commented that the English one predates the Irish‽ I am most certainly not an expert on the subject (partly due to being born in a small rural town in Sweden).