Album Review: Bird in the Belly - Only Dogs as Friends
A fruitful dive into a body of work is on offer when English folk outfit Bird in the Belly hit the recording trail. Following their 2022 post apocalyptic album After the City, the quartet return with a multi-layered effort exploring the unusual, the macabre and the forgotten. The base of ONLY DOGS AS FRIENDS is the premise of a dozen tales spun through adapting traditional song and poetry, and writing original lyrics. Words, voice and instrumentation construct a powerful collection. Some are awash with hooks to drive the impact, while others are of a more challenging persuasion. The outcome pushes boundaries and evokes an idiosyncratic style.
An end of October release date is appropriate for the eerie and morbid themes. No more than a gruesome mass act of drowning children in the river as told in ‘Hen’s Egg’. Death takes a different turn in the title track with ‘Only Dogs as Friends’ telling of a deceased body laid in public eventually identified by a faithful pet dog.. The third off-kilter theme is the weird and wonderful final track, ‘Law of Kissing’, dealing with a court judgement on biting off a nose in self-defence. The lyric ‘if you spend all your time playing with cats, you’re gonna get scratched’ repeatedly re-enforces the moral.
Three of the quartet add vocals; primarily by Ben Webb, from Laura Ward in tandem with her flute playing and as part of multi-instrumentalist Tom Pryor's varied contribution. Percussion is courtesy of fourth band member Adam Ronchetti. Original lyrics are largely the work of Webb, though Ward takes over on the feminine slanted ’40 Elephants’. However, there is a strong case for group arrangements being the defining art of Bird in the Belly.
The delightful chimes of ‘Fair Weather McGregor’ and the incredibly catchy ‘Go Along Bobby’ drive the album in its mid-stage. Both are unearthed traditional songs benefiting from a re-invigorated makeover.
Ward’s vocals prominently sparkle in the aforementioned ’40 Elephants’ with the early lyric ‘sisters in crime’ summing up this infamous London all female gang. She also features in the marvellously moody ‘I Once Built a Boy’ which tells the tale of woman rebuilding the body of her hanged son part-by-part. Repeated chants of ‘I have been with god in the dark’ plus a slow motion beat aid the gory intrigue.
Other significant Webb lyrical contributions include the vibrant ‘When Your Soul Goes Free’ and the captivating ‘Old Holborn’. Tracks like the reworked poem ‘Black Annis’ and the left field ‘Lambs’ may need a few listens to grasp. The collection is completed with the cautionary American traditional song ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’.
Songs description and lyrics are an essential companion throughout.
With an offbeat quirkiness in effective true alt-folk tradition, ONLY DOGS AS FRIENDS revives remnants of a storied past to tease, test and tantalise the listener. Bird in the Belly strike an alternative chord attaining a status of sharp edged story tellers.
