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Rating: After having firmly established an important and valuable group like Idlewild, now singer Roddy Woomble is taking his own space.
Following his pulsating passion for poetry and Scottish culture, Woomble embarks on a solo project, thus producing his first album. Produced by John McCusker under PureRecords, “My Secret Is My Silence” presents itself as a complete and well-organized work. A pure malt whisky concentrate with a bouquet of Scottish folk rhythms from which to get intoxicated during the dampest winters.
The album is the work of an excellent band that features, in addition to the aforementioned producer, already known for his folk band and solo work, John McCusker, Woomble’s own wife (Ailidh Lennon) on bass, and the beautiful voices of Kate Rusby and Karine Polwart. The album took shape also with the collaboration of Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones, who co-wrote five songs with Woomble.
The folk rhythms are enhanced by violins and instruments like harmoniums, flutes, accordions, and Scottish pipes. Not far from what could, however, be an acoustic Idlewild work, Woomble manages to conceive a genuine and deep album. The scent and intensity it exudes is of a collection of folk ballads to warm the heart during the harshest winters.
The album opens with the beautiful “I Came From The Mountain” with a melancholic acoustic guitar upon which Woomble’s warm voice rests before being joined by Kate Rusby. It speaks to us of dreams and fears, verbal communication, and time that presses upon everything.
In the second position starts a rock-and-roll styled “As Still As I Watch” where this time Roddy sings with the brilliant songwriter Karine Polwart.
After the sweet and incisive third track comes the beautiful title track, “My Secret Is My Silence”. Like an evening drink in a pub on the shore of a lake.
But it is in the fifth position that perhaps the true pearl of the album is found: “Act IV” is a gem of a song where flutes and pipes accompanied by an acoustic guitar form elegant enchanted harmonies before soft percussion strikes up a splendid Woomble-Rusby duet. It was act four that broke my heart!
The rhythms change horizons with “From The Drifter”. Here, one is swept away by a folk rhythm that almost becomes an Irish dance. “If You Could Name Any Name” is a light acoustic ballad once again honored by Polwart’s beautiful voice before arriving at “Whiskeyface”, a two-minute-forty instrumental to dance drunken on tables. “Waverlay Waves” is another proof of the moving vocal knots Roddy weaves with Kate Rusby. “So let the light be mined away”…
Thus slips away this first brave work of Woomble, amidst breathtaking duets, violins, and acoustic guitars.
Ideal to listen in company, it is an excellent drinking companion.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Every Line Of A Long Moment (03:40)
Every early morning just to wake up and put coffee on the stove
The morning secret code
And every early morning when the night is always crueler than the day
I watched the sea turn from gold into
Every line of a long moment written down in my handwriting
It makes me feel free to do anything
As I look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic
Look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic
Every winter morning between clock hands than type out your day
And I become the only light that could ever reach you
And every early evening walking through fields that turn from green into grey
And you can only hear when I shout your name out
Every line of a long moment written down in my handwriting
It makes me feel free to do anything
As I look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic
As I look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic Ocean
Until it becomes a sea
Until the north seas waves they come to cover me
And I look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic
Look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic
Look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic
Look out across the wall
Look out across the wall
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