Arthur G. Daly to his family

[…continued from last post]

The sun-dazzled pastoral, pizzicato pop of “Antony” called back melodically to “Difficult Shapes And Passive Rhythms [Some People Think it’s Fun To Entertain],” but this song had a lushness that came closer to the sound of a song like “Orinoco Flow.” Complete with birdsong. This was less bombastic, of course! The lyric was what first appeared to be a light hearted tribute to the Artist Formerly Known As Antony Hagerty, but the final verse acted to presage the dark tone of the remaining songs on this album. At least when considered lyrically. The melancholy of loss they alluded to was in sharp contrast to the vibe of the music. This would set the tone for the rest of the album.

After its whistling intro, “Dead Of Night” was based on metronomic rhythms that recalled music box precision but the toylike music was contrasted by the somber lyric telling of secrets, denial, endings, and estrangement. That was followed by the matter of fact “Anger And/Or Rage.” As usual with Mr. Daly, he could be singing about dark times indeed, but he usually sees fit to couch the music that such sentiments were built on in the usual beauty of his compositions.

“Funny how the feelings change
Full of anger and/or rage
Feel I’m falling off the page
Full of anger and/or rage
And wouldn’t want to be like you
The feeling’s mutual I see
You wouldn’t want to be like me
Full of anger and/or rage” – “Anger And/Or Rage”

The music seemed so casual and carefree, but on closer inspection of course it was not. The title track was an intimate number that was anchored by the pianos of Daly and producer Thomas McConnell. While the lyric examined the sort of loss and change all survivors ultimately experience in age, the simple elegance of the music pointed the way forward to some sort of peace and acceptance. Only in the middle eight did the synths and strings threaten to get all “Sgt. Pepper” but as soon as it seemed to happen, the mood receded more quickly than it came on, to leave the song to the dignity of the piano to conclude the album.

I suspect that some of these songs date back almost 20 years or so. Daly has stated that the notion was there to make a solo album at least as early as 2008 interviews, but the public were clamoring for China Crisis, so the solo material took a back seat for some years while the band got more busy with touring and then made “Autumn In The Neighbourhood” in 2015. So these songs remained unfinished business… until now. While it’s true that some of this was not a million miles away from the China Crisis playbook, there was a reliance on synths and self reliance that had been minimized in the band starting with their third album. The introduction of sounds like indie disco, harps, and John Campbell himself insured that there were moves made here to distinguish this as purely a solo product of Gary Daly. But the mixture of beauty and melancholy at the heart of these songs was simply a product of Daly’s artistic DNA as it has been from day one. Thank goodness.

This EP of remix DLs if free to all who register for Daly’s mailing list

The LP is sold out, but interested parties may buy the still available CD here. Finally, in a move that takes us back to the says of singles and B-sides, Daly has made six track download EP of remixes of sone of the “Gone From Here” material available for free download here. One need only register for Daly’s mailing list [let us be extra thankful that he’s now, finally having one] for the privilege but if you’ve read this far, then you are the target market for these, I suppose. I’ve downloaded these but have not had the time to listen to these mixes yet, but if memory serves, the files were uncompressed WAV format!

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