Is It the Sea?
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Score:77
Reviewer: Thomas Mendelovits
Label: Domino (UK & Australia)
Reviewed: Jan 8th '09, Released:2008
If one of the purposes of a studio album is to document a moment in a band’s career trajectory, then a live album can similarly work as a document of a precise moment in time; one night’s musical performance. Or not. The Fiery Furnaces’ recent two-disc behemoth Remember…., which opted for a confounding cross-section of cobbled together recordings and even multiple takes of some tracks, threw this ‘tonight’s atmosphere’ principle on its head. Is It the Sea? takes realism as it’s principle aim, a tack also evident with the stage-miked Justice set A Cross the Universe, where audience response and ambience are just as important as the sound made by the players. Comprised mostly of material from Will Oldham’s 1999-2006 albums as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and recorded at Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh with Scottish folk outfit Harem Scarem and freelance, free-jazz drummer Alex Neilson, Is It the Sea? revels in a naturalism befitting Oldham’s ancient-sounding folk music.
The genuine feel of the record is marked out from the very first sounds we hear. Applause builds, we hear Oldham thanking the audience, he calls his fellow players to the stage, and the band lurch into ‘Minor Place’. From these sounds, and the footsteps of the Bonnie Prince’s six supporting musicians we can imagine the setting; a small theatre with wooden floors, probably tiered seating (there is lots of stomping), maybe some Persian carpets scattered on the stage. A live album is usually best suited to those already keen on the artist’s work, but there is an X-factor reason for Is It the Sea? as Oldham appears buoyed to jubilance by the inspired playing. While showcasing the unassuming strength of his songs would no doubt spell success, the record shows Oldham to be unpretentious in his approach. He banters with the crowd and, despite a bleakness found in many of his songs, plays the role of the entertainer, clearly enjoying it.
In pitting Celtic melodrama to Oldham’s timeless writing style, Is It the Sea? further blurs the line between the contemporary and the ancient explored in Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s studio albums. In such a context, it is hard to even tell the one traditional song (‘Molly Bawn’) from the predominantly post-millennium material. The existence of someone like Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy performing in such a context clearly begs the question of why baby boomer marketed folk festivals like Australia's Port Fairy and Queenscliff don’t bill acts with more, if not merely younger, relevance rather than the usual bands who re-imagine traditional music in easy-to-digest packaging. For those in Australia, it’s fingers crossed.
