THE MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY – ‘This Is Hope’

Apr 212010

THE MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY – ‘This Is Hope’ 2004, B-Unique Records

In his onstage preamble during one of the Madison Square Gardens concerts that were filmed for part of the Led Zeppelin movie ‘The Song Remains The Same’, Robert Plant introduced ‘Stairway To Heaven’ with the words “This is a song of hope”. Here we have an entire album based on ideas about human hope. Along the way various issues are addressed such as the fear of losing the love of your life, the unstoppable course of ‘progress’, dying without letting your loved ones know how you feel, the dangers of the cloning of human life, what is lost to society when close rural communities shed their traditional values, drug addiction, Government scandals and more. Given some of these topics, you’d think it would be almost impossible to make an album of uplifting, life affirming songs. That’s where the hope comes in – huge optimism in fact, along with a massive dose of fantastically infectious melodies, eclectic arrangements, thoughtful, bittersweet lyrics and a great understanding of what make a great song.

The Mull Historical Society released three albums between 2001 and 2004, however, it’s difficult to think of MHS as anything other than a one man operation. Its main protagonist, Colin MacIntyre, has since gone on to release two albums under his own name. The band name originates from a regular column in a local newspaper about the genealogical society on MacIntyre’s home island of Mull.

The first album, ‘Loss’ was a very confident debut showing great song writing and a natural feel for the infectiously melodic sound that emerges at the forefront of this album. The follow up, ‘Us’ was perhaps not quite as strong but still well worth owning. However, ‘This Is Hope’ capitalises on all of the lessons learnt before and adds subtlety, sophistication and polish without treading into the trap of overbearing production. There’s a mature use of contrasts – light and shade, power and lightness of touch, beautiful melodies and disjointed rhythms, densely layered structures and sparing production are all put to good use.

This Is Hope’ is an album that can be listened to on two entirely different levels. Firstly, you can take it at face value and hear it as bright and breezy ‘pop music’ – easy to do because Colin MacIntyre has a remarkable knack for writing melodies, choruses and hooks that are just so intrinsically right that they have you wondering where you’ve heard them before. It’s not that there’s any plagiarism going on, or even that they’re derivative – he just manages to put together a song that sounds great the first time. There are a few songwriters/bands still around who can do this, and of course there have been quite a few in the past: Teenage Fanclub, Squeeze, XTC, Big Star, Bowie (once upon a time) and Julian Cope in his lighter moments have all been able to have that effect on me.

The other way to enjoy ‘This Is Hope’ is to delve deeper than the surface and unravel the lyrics and the production to reveal a much more complicated side than is first apparent. I sometimes feel that pop music has a bit of a dirty name nowadays because of all of the artistic sins that have been committed in its name over the years, so it’s nice to find something that credits the listener with some intelligence and taste. The bitter-sweetness of the lyrics displays gentle humour alongside the often serious subjects being addressed. If you own a decent set of headphones you can become completely distracted by these aspects of the album and of particular note are the dynamic contrasts which can be just breathtaking if not quite making you jump out of your seat in surprise on hearing them for the first time! Listening through a good conventional system can be just as rewarding though, and after hundreds of listens over the years since its release, I’ve yet to become bored by it.

The Songs:

I Am Hope.
The first track on the album is dead simple – several different voices, both single and collective, making a statement of intent for the whole album. There’s no music but just the spoken word: “I am hope, you are hope, we are hope, this is hope”.

Peculiar.
Formula for a great pop song: big beginning, upbeat tempo, catchy melody, great groove, two chords…..big chorus. That’s what this track is, but the melody is …..ummm….well, it’s peculiar. But in a good way! The lyrics are about the guy who finally married the girl of his dreams. They both used to be a little kooky (peculiar, in fact!) and so is their son but as he begins to mellow with age, he becomes terrified he might not be able to keep her as they grow older together.
“I’m not cool anymore, stay with me, honey”

How ’bout I Love You More.
This is one of the best examples of those multi-facetted songs I mentioned earlier. On initially hearing the track it just comes across as a ridiculously catchy pop song, perfect for the summer (and it was a hit single) or one of those audience participation moments from a gig set-list. Under the surface is a question about ‘Progress’ & Man’s improbable desire to repeatedly invent things that kill members of his own species. The hope element comes when we realise that despite this weird and often destructive relationship man has with machines, we can take comfort in some of our own human relationships.

Treescavengers.
This track takes the, so far relentless, tempo down a few notches and is much more contemplative, beginning with a simple piano figure and drums with layers of other instruments added and built up on more layers until we end up with what seems like a full orchestral arrangement. The piano parts are more evidence of those fantastic melodies, but the whole thing is rich, moody and sumptuous and reflects the melancholia in the words that tell of the struggle to summon up courage to give hope to someone you care about when they feel that all hope is lost.

This is the Hebrides.
Bitter political comment (or maybe a tirade) on historical and recent events in America. This is a song of several parts – sometimes a bit spiky sounding, sometimes lush and rich.

Tobermory Zoo.
This sounds like a jaunty disjointed romp through childhood, beginning with a simple single note guitar riff, turning out a bouncy, tongue-twisting lyric which is a social commentary on how some things in life have a value to society that can’t be quantified and that the traditional values held by wise old folk are precious to us all.

Death of a Scientist (A Vision of Man Over Machine 2004)
This track is a bit of a masterpiece about illegal wars and Governmental cover-ups. It’s partly from the point of view of a Dr. David Kelly who was disgraced & committed suicide – the narrative being told by him as he looks down on how events unfold after his own death.

“A simple accident of fate
A quiet hero made a mistake
I’m the Fall Guy who fell away”

….and:

“I used to know a man
Who burnt his silly skin against the State”

However, after it all, wars and corruption carry on, but people maybe just begin to become more cynical about their leaders. It’s strong stuff, but there’s that hope thing that rears it’s head again. The music is glorious and respectful and there are several distinct passages with broadly contrasting song structures – simple acoustic guitar during one, sweeping string sounds are added as the dramatic tension is built up. Then the chorus kicks in – all angular and awkward, but somehow slipping seamlessly back into the previous, almost pastoral, sounds. This track has it all – a brass section, great drum playing, a place where there’s a collage of found sounds and spoken voices all backed with immense emotion and sadness. Fantastic.

Your Love, My Gain.
The premise of this beautiful piano ballad is that we are born, our parents look after us and then we gradually swap roles. This song is quite simply brilliant.

“Your love, your love my gain again

And I can take the pain and make it mine and take it in
Because I’m more than what I have without you”

MacIntyre manages to couple the main musical theme with swirling, bleeping keyboard sounds that have no right to be there at all but the whole thing hangs together as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Casanova at the Weekend.
This is one of those tracks that’s filled with subtle stops and starts and is propelled along by infectious but quirky rhythms. The storyline about aliens cloning humans to study their culture is also a little quirky! Apparently, the clone in the song goes a little off the rails, enjoying the more fun aspects of human life a little too much. An up-tempo, sing along foot tapper.

My Friend the Addict.
Another gear shift to a slower tempo and you can hear the undying hope in the singing voice as the tale of trying to coax a drug user back to normality unfolds.

Len.
This track benefits from some silky smooth strings and vocal harmonies. It’s a tale of unconditional parental love.

In the Next Life (A Requiem).
The final track is a big production number, that like Treescavengers, starts off simply building up into a complex and layered big sound which includes samples, found sounds and voices in conversation that all swell up and down through the mix. If you’re the slightest bit interested in how a track is assembled from its constituent parts, this is where your headphones become essential! The song was inspired by Colin MacIntyre’s grandmother dying, and is about telling loved ones that they are loved while you’re still able to – a point he was able to make by placing the voice of his other grandmother onto the track. The sound, as I mentioned, is big with great crescendos and pyrotechnics but is driven oddly along by a slightly gawky, angular keyboard figure that should be wrong but works. This is a magnificent towering and dramatic end to a fantastic album.

The album is thoroughly recommended to all, along with an invitation to explore the other MHS albums without fear of disappointment. But start with this one – it’s constantly rewarding and deserves to be remembered as a masterpiece!

You can find explanations of the songs along with the lyrics on Colin MacIntyre’s website – an essential tool to unravelling the meanings behind the song lyrics.

Link…. http://www.colinmacintyre.com/cm/WELCOME/WELCOME.html

Chris Bennett

Band Members:

Colin MacIntyre – vocalists, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Alan Malloy – bassist.
Tony Soave – drummer.
Colin MacPherson – keyboardist.

Albums:
Loss, 2001.
Us, 2003.
This Is Hope, 2004.

Colin McIntyre solo albums:
The Water, 2008.
Island, 2009.

THE MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY – ‘This Is Hope’. CD B-Unique Records, 2004 (BUN082)

Sound Quality 9 out of 10

Music 10 out of 10

Source of Review Music…… Reviewer owned item

System used…..

Accuphase DP67 Cd player/Audio Research SP8 Pre-Amplifier, Mark Levinson ML9/ML11 Power Amplifiers, Mirage M3Si Speakers.

Photos 1 and 2 copyright belongs to the original publishers.