Anthony Reynolds gets his press releases written by a comedian (Robin Ince). I'm not taking the piss. I know, most press releases make you say things like "Is this guy some sort of comedian?", but he does. They're probably mates or something.  That's not the point, anyway, the point is that said press release essentially claims Reynolds is utterly outwith of any current mainstream consesnsus, culturally ; I'm not so sure, because while yeah, Anthony might not get past the hotel stage of the X factor with his music, nor find himself careering through the ocean with huge water mammals, he's hardly up there with The Aphex Twin, Tom Waits or more extreme reaches of The Fall's back catalogue. Throw him in the Orbisonizer for a couple of hours and you're mining territory not a million miles away from Richard Hawley, and I don't think that guy will be having trouble buying a pint of mild for a good time to come.

That said, however, the Hawley comparison is a useful one to use in order to place this album in an immediate context, with its sumptuous string and piano led arrangements providing alluring and evocative backdrops to Reynolds' lyrical capturing of point between the melancholic and the majestic, the mundane and the magnificent , "between the stars and the city/ the loveless and the loved / the saved and the pitied" (I Know That You Know). A Quiet Life evokes the spartan outsider mood ("dog shit and children and rude shop assistants...no, no thanks"), but not without a sleight of self-mockery ("I've got my Tv and a radio / I might even switch 'em on / see how it goes"). It's hardly Fitter Happier in terms of raging alienation, but you certainly get the point.

The breadth of the album isn't very, well, broad, but there are undercurrents here and overcurrents there. Bread and Wine breaks down into a mid-section reminding you of pre-Ziggy Bowie ; Where The Dead Live evokes The Next Life-era Suede....ah, hang on, that's the same thing, that's a rubbish comparison. Ok, it has a piano / acoustic guitar tangle which reminds me of the David Sylvian of Secrets of the Beehive. Also, vocal assistance is provided by Vashti Bunyan and Dot Allison, to particularly startling effect in the former's case on Country Girl and Just So You Know. Yet overall, the tempo is resolutely mid (excluding the closer Song Of Leaving), and these diversions become essential to retain total interest when the quality level sags. The one movement anywhere near the extremities comes with The Hill, a Rupert Brooke poem narrated by existentialist author Colin Hill over tremulous, forboding effects.

In and of itself, the voice, whilst strong and impressive, doesn't overpower you, or have anything unique to it - the real strength comes when a killer melody comes along to carry it higher, rather than sounding like it could sing the nutritional information on a bag of hula-hoops and still have you weeping/flying. Yet there are moments - The Disappointed is a gorgeous piano and strings laden ode to "days of sun and summer done / and  Mother's voice calling us home from August parks at dusk / we, the disappointed" - if that doesn't move you, give up now. Those Kind Of Songs, one of the album's finest moments (and something of a manifesto for the artist, one feels) moves from a serene guitar picking into a grand but controlled statement of intent - "I don't know those kind of songs / I dont go to see those kind of films... I'm sorry, but I'm not ashamed".

In some ways, I am damning this record with faint praise. I would primarily account for this being due to writing at the same time as responding to the voracious demands of our 'Ear taskmasters to compile this years top records, and in revisiting some of those highlights making hair-splitting decisions between albums of equal magnitude. Whilst that is hardly fair on Anthony Reynolds, it just shows much more clearly that whilst this is a fine record, the high points of which enamour themselves to you more with each listen, it doesn't quite scale those extra heights. Anthony Reynolds might eschew the spotlight, yet if British Ballads is a taste of things to come, he might have less of a choice about it in future.

Release Date: 10/12/2007
Artist Website: www.anthonyreynolds.net
Label: Hungry Hill / Spinney

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