Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 19/02/07
Label: Peace Frog

Yahoo! Music has played Findlay Brown's astonishing new album around seven times in a row. In a cruel world on the verge of climatic meltdown and yet still obsessed with Britney Spears shaven head, this is almost certainly a good thing. "Separated By The Sea" transports you back to a much happier more logical place - beckoning you to draw the curtains, stick on the headphones and throw another log on the fire.

The background to Brown's career (gypsy roots, bare-knuckle boxing, LSD, Hendrix, Danish girlfriend gone AWOL) might be a load of PR fluff, but there's little doubt that his detailed musical vision is altogether more believable than Pete Doherty's Albion of gin in teacups and crack on the lawn. Brown's desolate England is all broken bracken and cold snaps and bonfires in winter. It shivers with isolation. On half these songs you imagine him like Heathcliff lost on the moor, wailing for his love across the North Sea.

And this is very much an English record. Recorded with a holy-like sheen by Simian's Simon Lord (also on the dials for this year's other essential folk rock album, Barbarossa's "Chemical Campfires") it references everyone from Bert Jansch and Fairport Convention to Roy Harper, although the nearest comparison piece is probably Bill Fay's recently resurrected debut album from 1971 - particularly on the pastorally orchestrated loveliness that is "Loneliness I Fear". Somehow, also like Fay, Brown never sounds dated. In a rather convoluted way, that's to say this is a timeless album.

As the title would suggest, it's also centred on those perennial twin obsessions of heartbreak and loss. Just look at those track names: "Down Among The Dead Men", "Losing The Will To Survive", "Tonight Won't Wait", "Don't You Know I Love You". All are illustrated by tiny details - that golden line about feeling like a "glorified refugee" on "Come Home" (and the later request to "amputate sympathy"), the aching strings on "Paperman" and the elegant closer "Twin Green Pram".

If this all sounds a bit "hey nonny nonny", then fear not. "Losing The Will To Survive" could be a Coral cover, and Brown's love of West Coast '60s rock is a constant reference, with nods to Buffalo Springfield, Love and Neil Young. Considering that old ShakeyJanschYoung hasn't made an album this strong in decades.

"Separated By The Sea" is a thing of rare wonderment - a bold opening statement from an artist so far beyond the Morrisons and Blunts of this world it's laughable. And that's the most exciting thing - it's just the beginning. If he keeps up this sort of form, Findlay Brown has the potential to create his own legacy. Time to hit the play button for listen number eight.

    by Adam Webb