Spiralling out of left field with startling effect is the
new record from English singer-songwriter Megan Henwood. HEAD, HEART, HAND is the
title of this second album from Megan, who is now beginning to fulfil the
promise of the 2009 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award which was bestowed upon her
and brother, Joe. It is also an appropriate strapline for a performer of Megan’s
nature and reveals an artist prepared to stretch out from convention in
striking a serious chord for originality. An album of many redeeming features,
its strongest selling point is an impulsive knack of grabbing your attention, certainly
not a bad trait to incorporate into an album.
Musically, this record is vibrant and keeps you on your toes
for its entire duration, whether through mid-song tempo switches or superior
moments of orchestral splendour. It is also
underpinned by Megan’s quintessentially English vocals which float between a
whispering softness to a more profound starkness. Thematically, it ranges from
the abstract to the observational often calling at many personal points in
between. The latter is best identified in the closing track ‘Painkiller’ with its personal
inspiration and the lingering words of the album title reverberating within the
lyrical content.
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| Photo by Elly Lucas |
‘Love/Loathe’ is
the ideal lead off track to both open and currently promote the album. Like so many
tracks that follow, it contains a wonderful tempo change with a memorable
mid-song segment echoing the line ‘my heart is a pendulum’ to tie in succinctly
with the track’s split title. Other songs which have a diverse element to their
structure include the slightly dark ‘Our Little
Secret’ and ‘These Walls’. ‘Puppet and the Songbird’ sees Megan at
her most abstract lyrically, but as a tune, it unravels as a bouncy number
illuminated by a relentless violin contribution.
Megan penned eleven of the twelve tracks with the exception being a beautiful instrument-free version of the traditional ‘Rose Red’ with a glorious harmony accompaniment from Jackie Oates and Tom Excell. In contrast, ‘No Good No Fun’ with its indie pop sentiment adds to the album’s diversity and shows that folk convention is a strong factor, but not necessarily a constricting one.
Alongside the opening number, ‘Chemicals’ makes a valid case for being among the strongest tracks
and gets inside your head in a pleasing way straight from the early bars. This
also features the strength of Megan’s vocal contribution which is one of the
album’s most redeeming qualities. From a musical perspective the second track ‘Grateful Ghost’ begins in a stripped
mode of simplicity before evolving into a great feast of sound. ‘Garden’ stakes a claim as the record’s
most beautiful track and is a glorious descriptive piece of writing
highlighting a writer in full flow. The final two tracks ‘Fall and Fade’ and ‘Lead
Balloon’ both reside within the groove of the record with the latter being
amongst the softer offerings.
HEAD, HEART, HAND is a truly worthwhile record getting to know
and reaches out to music fans without frontiers. Megan Henwood deserves every
inch of anticipated column praise for this album which is a body of work rich
in independence and packing a direct punch right from the first listen.
