Flynn walks the ‘Country Mile’
September 25, 2013
Opening with the essence of the road, in lyric, taste and feel: the tempo moves through the sullied gravel and picks up running with English folk-rock band Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit’s new album, “Country Mile.”
Flynn’s album begins with the eponymous track. In the same solemn vein of 2008’s “A Larum” and with the refrain of 2010’s “Been Listening,” Flynn’s last two albums, “Country Mile” initiates the concentrated movement. The journey commences with earnest livelihood and produces a blend of vocal harmony in foot-tapping sway from the Sussex Wit, backing Flynn’s signature Johnson Resonator with drum and electric guitar.
One step over the other, a baritone vocal from Flynn is accompanied by the light timbre from his sister, Lillie. Melody creating euphoria, casting glances into the distance, perceiving what is to come: strong, powerful, winding and driving, the subtle yet raw crescendo summoning exclaim.
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The album progresses down the road with “After Elliot.” Riddled with notes a kin to Flynn’s striking single “The Box,” the listener feels familiar territory as they waltz about the ground below. One feels their feet moving with ease as the lap-guitar produces floating notes about the canvass path. The land becomes slowly estranged, feeling lost and noting the uniqueness of Flynn’s newest endeavor: enrapturing the ear with harmonious buzz, quenching the palate with gulps of encroaching rhythm.
The listener enters now what feels as though acquainted with “The Prizefighter and the Heiress” and “Howl.” Enchanting electric guitar conveyed with familial vocal tone rising and falling wayside by trumpet accompaniment bellowing through. The song barrels forth and drives our walking, captivated by the pleasantries of the grassy notes and the rocky guitar staccato, all surmounting within “The Lady is Risen.”
The listener ventures farther than ever along the melodic roadway, standing under shaded canopies from the trees of “Murmuration” and “Gypsy Hymn” that let breezes alternate: cooling and calm and warm and chaotic.
One finds their destination in “Fol-de-Rol” in which they have met the West and the climactic concluding theme of the album. It is to have been on a journey, a long awaited trek of which one must dance under the signs of life as well as take upon new endeavors – and as Flynn suggests, to the West, and the Sussex Wit accomplish their task with such beautiful composure.
The listener comes upon a point of maturity of which Flynn creates within “Einstein’s Idea,” hitting a wonderful falsetto much different and further controlled than prior albums, though all excellent, this is progression.
One finally hears the album in full swing with “Bottom of the Sea Blues,” a rather ecstatic sounding song despite the bluesy title, and the song grows into the quick-paced lyrical as seen through “Cold Bread” in the past, and closing itself with “Time Unremembered” and finally falling asleep where the body has now ventured far enough into the great unknown and wild yonder to dream.
The album “Country Mile” is pure excitement and blissful pleasure. It thrives completely on Flynn’s household guitar-riffs and vocal patterns. Flynn is now embarking on his solo tour promoting the album, though he has recently been seen opening for Mumford and Sons. He will be make a few stops about the US, performing extensively in Europe.
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