Snakefarm
Album: My Halo At Half-Light
Label: Fledg'ling
Tracks: 10
Website: www.thebeesknees.com

I've played Snakefarm's last album, "Songs From My Funeral" at least once a month since I reviewed it. "So What?" I hear you cry. Well that was thirteen odd years ago so that's an awful lot of staying power.

"My Halo At Half-Light" is the album that many expected to follow in relatively short succession and now has so much more to live up to. It's one thing to follow up a brilliant album, quite another to follow an album that has acquired an almost legendary reputation.

"My Halo At Half-Light" hasn't got quite the same body count as it's predecessor, but it's not that far off. More important neither is the root. Snakefarm reinterpret American folk classics, many of which were themselves reinterpretations of English folk classics over a very extended period. In that sense there are many songs on this album that will feel very familiar even if the setting doesn't.

Murder ballads and funeral songs, probably because of human nature, are often the standout tracks on folk albums, especially if a salacious angle can be found, he did her wrong, so the logic seems to be why not put ten songs of that nature on an album and have an album that is so rich in jewels you'll keep and wanting to come back? Normally the answer to that will be that too much of a good thing…. There are exceptions to the rule, afore mentioned "Songs From My Funeral" being one and Nick Cave's murder ballads album being another. "My Halo At Half-Light" can now be added to the list, though in fairness not all the songs on the album are murder ballads.

Anna Domino has been blessed with a beautiful and distinctive voice that puts the velvet into black velvet, it sounds as though it's been crafted to make darkness feel somehow bright and vibrant without losing that spine tingling sense that you get with a really ghost story. These are areas Domino explored with her solo material, but which take on that really special feel when applied to songs you thought you knew.

Her co-conspirator in this exercise, the other half of Snakefarm, is multi-instrumentalist Michel Delory, who, in some respects becomes the body to Domino's soul, building the sound for the vocal to exchange a sense of drama with.

"Stagger Lee" is the best example of this, being the song on the album that most of you would have heard before in many different variations. Snakefarm give themselves the task of not only having to deliver a standout song, they have to deliver it against a song that you have already set a personal standard for, talk about making things difficult for yourself. I think I might be beginning to realise why it's taken so long to release the sophomore album.

Not all of the songs on the album are as well known as that one, but the attention to detail on all of the songs is absolutely huge, the commitment to ensuring that every song delivers for every moment that it passes through your ears is extraordinary, but this is an extraordinary album. Whilst I'm no musical seer, I think I can see myself listening to this on a regular basis for the next thirteen years, I just hope the gap to album number three doesn't take as long!!

Neil King