Songs From The Deep Forest - Duke Special

...a thoroughly charming collection of songs for this, his first album; "Songs From The Deep Forest". From the knees-up piano of "Portrait" through the epic orchestration of "Freewheel", towards the slightly banal "Slip Of A Girl" and then once back round again, the songs here are chirpy, pleasant, and owe quite a debt to Wings-era McCartney.. Melody takes precedence over noise, and the result is an album that ...
...is. Simply put: the good songs are good, and the bad songs are bad. There's little in the way of middle ground here.

Luckily, the good outnumbers the bad, especially when tracks such as "Everybody Wants A Little Something" come round. A plinky-plonky piano toetapper, it starts out relentlessly upbeat until Duke starts singing in his husky Irish voice, "I don't love you/everybody knows", which is a bit of a downer. ... more

Duke Special hails from Ireland, the only country which can define it's entire culture on a single brand of beer. Whilst his countrymen spend their lives inventing ridiculously dangerous games to play against each other (seriously; have you SEEN a hurling match? People die), he has decided instead to make a thoroughly charming collection of songs for this, his first album; "Songs From The Deep Forest". From the knees-up piano of "Portrait" through the epic orchestration of "Freewheel", towards the slightly banal "Slip Of A Girl" and then once back round again, the songs here are chirpy, pleasant, and owe quite a debt to Wings-era McCartney.. Melody takes precedence over noise, and the result is an album that garnered itself a Mercury Music Award Nomination, even if that does mean progressively less every year. Duke Special himself is actually a bloke called Peter Wilson, who has dreadlocks and wears ruffed up "hobo-chic" suits. He's a showman, but not in the elegant camp-styling Rufus Wainwright has somehow, brilliantly, made into a whole genre. This is more subdued and restrained, and the focus is on the music instead of any force of personality. Whilst this works well on the stronger numbers here, it does mean that whenever there is a weak song, there is no strength of character which can propel it to sound better than it actually is. Simply put: the good songs are good, and the bad songs are bad. There's little in the way of middle ground here.

Luckily, the good outnumbers the bad, especially when tracks such as "Everybody Wants A Little Something" come round. A plinky-plonky piano toetapper, it starts out relentlessly upbeat until Duke starts singing in his husky Irish voice, "I don't love you/everybody knows", which is a bit of a downer. However, the song itself, punctuated by forlorn blasts of brass from time to time, and a brush drum, is excitable and quite folkish, really. It's a fun track, with a superb instrumental towards the end, although it suffers from the twee chorus- simply, the title is repeated a few times in a row. "Last Night I Nearly Died" follows in the same sort of vaudeville vein (why yes, I am taking a degree in creative writing, how could you tell?), this time with a more downhearted twist supplied from the violins in the background. Not to say this is downhearted; this is still a light and happy song, but there is a slightly worrying morbid feeling to the song. I don't quite understand what the lyrics are on about, but that could be because quite often the lyrics here are pretty crap. "I lose my meaning/I get this feeling" he croons at one point, which is an awful rhyme. However, get over that and this is another fun little ditty.

Not so poppy is "Something Might Happen", a bare-bones song with Special (I'm assuming I can call him that) on his own, at a piano, and it's a slow song about working up the courage to ask someone out. It's pleasant, and I think it'd be a hit at any springtime barbeque you might ever have. A candlelit symphony, you could call it. Another nice song is album closer "This Could Be My Last Day", a similar sort of deal with mainly a lone piano accompanying, until some other instruments join in, and things are brought up to an appropriately Guillemots-esque pace (it really does sound like them, mainly cos Special he has a similar voice to Fyfe Dangerfield, but still). It's a rather fine way to end the album. Also on the side of the fence which is "good" is "No Cover Up", the best ballad on the album by a long stretch. The emotion conveyed by Special as he hits the chorus is tense and really powers along the song, which is helped no end by the fantastic music. The piano is strong as always, but there's also a slow build up of drums and a gorgeous backing choir, aided by two violins in unison. There's a breakdown halfway through, with all sorts of wind and brass instruments being played, and it's wonderousity. Yes, I made up another word - I truly am godlike. But moving away from my genius, there are a fair few songs on the album which make no impression at all.

One of the worst offenders is "Slip Of A Girl", which has a truly annoying intro and goes rapidly downhill. I… I won't even discuss it, for it does not exist, so far as I am concerned, such is the dull it brings. "Brixton Leaves" suffers from an annoying piano, and manages to have not only a boring set of lyrics but a dead slow pace and no interesting payoff. It's pretty much impossible to remember it after you hear it, too. There's a very eastern European feel to "Ballad Of A Broken Man", which is a song I just can't get into. It's a mid-tempo number which shuffles forwards and backwards, going nowhere and with some weird moaning about a river from a muted backing choir. Again, not the best music. "Wake Up Scarlett", the opening track to the album, serves as a good introduction, but the way the music all flies together for the chorus feels a little forced and rubbish, in my opinion, and again - avoid.

But "Salvation Tambourine" has a good flow, with some interesting deep keyboard bits in among Special's voice, adding together nicely to create something that feels a little like a folk tale. And "Portrait" and "Freewheel", which are easily the best two songs on the album, are in another league altogether. The first is a jolty piano track which jumps really quickly and grabs your attention. It's a big old-fashioned musical pubalong, which everyone can join in with, and I imagine they probably play this in all Irish pubs in-between the Van Morrison and Westlife. (do they like Westlife in Ireland? They must be popular somewhere, they sell friggin' millionz). It's bouncy and great fun and yes, listen to it. Good times. Freewheel, on the other hand, is the one song where Special truly slips into another level of brilliant, and wheels out an epic-sounding four minute song where the piano sings out against a whitewashed backdrop, the strings adding an extra layer of tension to proceedings. "I don't wanna stand still/I just wanna freewheel/ I don't wanna lose this" he sings, with a powerful edge in his voice you won't hear anywhere else on the album. 'Tis true and good, so it is. Duke Special is the kind of musician you can enjoy but still take home to your mum. No swearing, no badness, just twelve well-crafted, solid songs which work best with alcohol. Doesn't everything? 

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