In Culzean Castle’s second-hand bookshop, so the background for this album tells us, hangs a notice board that collects stories. Stories in the form of lost and discarded notes, photographs, old receipts, letters, and postcards – fragments of people’s lives left in books, used as bookmarks, overlooked and forgotten when the book found its new home. Each tells their own tale and some even inspire new ones. Stories in all manner of mediums and via all sorts of momentos. Things Found in Books sees Yvonne Lyon & Boo Hewerdine add a new dimension to that collection of suggested tales and anecdotes—a musical one.
With two of the leading lights in modern songwriting teaming up to make music, you know something great will follow. As individuals, Yvonne has ten albums to her name and several Bob Harris live sessions under her belt, Boo, who I have been following since his days fronting The Bible, is the man responsible for, among many things, penning the Eddie Reader hit, “Patience of Angels.”
Just from the opening titular track, you realize this is an album that is more than the sum of its parts, even as great as those individual parts are. This graceful duet matches and marries their vocals perfectly, as a brooding cello and a subtly piano add an air of nostalgia and pathos. However, one song does not an album make, even though many artists could reasonably consider their work done if they had penned something half as great as this opening salvo.
Although the album’s mood is largely one of gentle understatement and space, even within that setting, there is plenty of variation. “Viennese Horses” is a wonderful, dreamlike, and graceful fairground-sounding waltz, while “Down By The Harbour” is a blend of country ballad, jazz-infusion, and a delicious and precision-delivered folk duet.
There are spoken-word pieces; “A Letter From the King” is exactly what it says: a missive of thanks for loyal service from above put to the dreamlike piano. “Hieroglyphics” is a jaunty instrumental reminding us that this is not just a celebration of the brilliant harmonies the two of them are able to produce but also of their instrumental invention.
I know it seems strange to ask this with only two months behind us, but is it too early to start compiling my albums of the year list?
