Grand Salvo Death by: Justin Pearsall Fri:02-May-08 Label: Spunk Year: 2008 WB rating 88 out of 100

Over the last four-and-a-bit years, Paddy Mann of Grand Salvo has been painstakingly crafting Death, his latest album. Call it a labour of love, call it obsession, or simply think of it as a songwriter trying to perfect the sounds in his head; whatever the inspiration, Mann’s 18-track storybook album is among the most achingly beautiful and fully realised releases of recent memory.

The storybook idea of Death revolves around a bird, a bear, a rat, a rabbit and a man, told through spoken word, orchestral arrangements and harmony-laced poetic folk. This concept album status can be a barrier for initial listens, particularly since its ambition seems misguided when contrasted with the seeming simplicity of Grand Salvo’s folk structures. Both prejudices are lost with more complete listening. Mann’s concept is as large and fully explored as a title of ‘Death’ dictates it to be; yet it is also intimate, its true value found in the minute detail of Mann’s lyricism and the perfection and complexity of the arrangements.

While recent nu-folk permutations have renewed interest in the folk art form, it is still the rare artist who can bring both interest and intensity to the more traditional style. Mann is one of these artists. Similar to the way Sam Beam’s voice carried Our Endless Numbered Days, or more recently the way Bon Iver’s grainy atmosphere coloured the grey singer-songwriter scene on For Emma, Forever Ago, it is Mann’s delivery, his vocal fragility, that places him firmly above the majority of his contemporaries – any of those who have seen Mann and singing partner Zoe Randall perform with nothing more than a nylon string guitar will be able to attest to this. Highlights of the album include the tender ‘I am Dead’, the whimsy of ‘Shaelem the Hunter’ and the magnificent ‘Shalelem Relagh’, each of these tracks reflecting something special and undefinable that makes Grand Salvo’s music much more than just folk.

The innovation of the album in terms of Grand Salvo’s sound is not so much the storybook concept or any nu-folk additions – as adding spoken word will do little to distract those who criticise Grand Salvo for sounding too placid – as it is the darkness of some of the musical arrangements. On ‘Snow Falls’ the disarming sweetness of a Mann/Randall harmony is nowhere to be found, dissonant guitar and ominous strings adding a necessary gloom to the record. Generally the musical interludes on the album reflect this tack, tanning the record with the gravity needed for such subject manner and counterbalancing Mann’s tendency for major-sounding compositions – particularly in the first half of the record.

If there is any flaw in Death it is to be found in its length. While few moments stand out as being unworthy of the record’s general excellence, the last third of the album could have benefited from the exclusion or repackaging of three to four of the tracks. Track number 14, the spectacular ‘Hunters Remorse’, is a prime example. The song itself is as powerful as any moment on the album, yet its placement at the tail end of proceedings distracts from this and one can’t help feel that some more auspicious placements could have made Death the classic album its potential suggested it could be.

Despite this criticism, in Death, Paddy Mann has birthed an album that will be amongst the best of the local releases for the year – even when compared against the cream of the international fare it is a clear highlight. Like For Emma, Forever Ago, Grand Salvo’s latest release reminds the listening public that the true role of music isn’t giant sized hooks and big band grandiosity. Music is created to illicit an emotional response and regardless of whose yardstick is being applied, Death is a clear winner.