Fyfe Dangerfield
Fly Yellow Moon

There are times in music when one seeks tranquility rather than excitement or strong sensations; simplicity and a sense of proportion are precious qualities, just like the ability to create sweet ballads without drowning in syrup. When you're in this mood, "Fly Yellow Moon" is a perfect response and a refreshing listen, capable of offering forty minutes of positive sensations and beautiful melodies. The first and so far, only solo album by Englishman Fyfe Dangerfield, frontman of the Guillermots, dated 2010, "Fly Yellow Moon" is an album of sweet and simple semi-acoustic ballads tinged with folk, with a few livelier episodes featuring pop rock contours with electronic nuances. A no-frills album, without complications, but with a great melodic sense, tact, and refinement, a rare commodity that is too often mistakenly taken for granted.

Fyfe Dangerfield's warm, gentle, and velvety voice is certainly a great added value, playing a leading role in the great final success of "Fly Yellow Moon", as demonstrated by a masterful piano and vocal interpretation of "She's Always A Woman" but also and especially by his songs, above all the masterpiece of the album, "Firebird", a melody that advances in a suggestive nocturnal spleen, like a minuet punctuated by a trembling piano, strings, and an enveloping, elegant singing that casts a gothic shadow on an album that, as suggested by the cover itself, moves predominantly in more morning scenarios, like those evoked by "High On The Tide", lightness, and a subtle melancholy, well blended by an acoustic and dreamy melody. Fyfe Dangerfield shows that it is still possible to demonstrate admiration and reverence for L. Cohen's "Hallelujah" without a pointless and pleonastic cover: with "Barricades", he takes its unmistakable cadence and evolves it into something of his own, personal, a ballad of great atmosphere, as are also the acoustic and very sweet "Live Wire" and "Don't Be Shy", excellently balanced by the orchestrated and lively pop rock of "She Needs Me", which seems to almost descend from Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" and the elegant electronic atmosphere of "Any Direction".

The most evident flaw of this lovely album is undoubtedly "Faster Than The Setting Sun": too much U2, too much set design and appearance and no soul, no emotion conveyed despite Dangerfield's always excellent voice, but after all, there's always the skip button, and it is a flaw that can be forgiven, also because the other two more markedly radio-friendly episodes, "When You Walk In The Room" and "So Brand New" hold their own, the first with its edgy pop rock enriched with electronics and overdubs and the second that balances a somewhat weak and repetitive refrain with a beautiful semi-acoustic melody marked by a piano riff of great charm and impact.

Therefore, "Fly Yellow Moon" is a perfectible album, which will certainly not be remembered as a milestone in the history of music, but remains nonetheless a quality product, far superior to today's radio pop rock junk, sung as God commands and generally excellent in songwriting. The impact on the listener's ears varies depending on the moments, but it remains a wonderful sensation of general solidity and artistic quality of the proposal, which deserves to be rewarded.