Glyn Bailey And The Many Splendid Things
Album: Happiness
Label: EmuBands
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.glynbailey.com

The cover of the 'Happiness' CD from Glyn Bailey & the Many Splendid Things is quiet sombre and gruesome, I'm sure it's a Bosche painting, if not it's extracting parts directly from the artists work. It sets a 'heavy metal' esque tone to the music before you have even listened to it.

So upon hearing the first track; called 'When loves calls' and a lone trumpet solo as intro you are definitely thrown off course. Spanish style flamenco guitar is up next with an almost Tom Waits/Chris De Burgh hybrid vocal style arrives, you are taught a lesson is judging a book (or CD) by its cover.

The vocal style is a bit more bountiful with that with Lou Reed, Cash, JJ Cale, Roger Walters, Weller, Eagles all detectable. Over listening to the entire album, I read Glyn cited Nick Cave as an influence and kicked myself I didn't spot this as its apparent throughout every bit.

I was semi-won over by the relaxed, inviting vibe of the opening track as it strolled on casually without any hasty or desperate attention seeking chorus. Perhaps it was the hot weather we have experienced recently but I was really feeling the whiffs of West coast Americana that lay beneath, the record is definitively English in its song writing by the end though.

The next track 'I,Robinson' leaned heavily towards the late Johnny Cash influence, with maybe more precise piano and orchestral strings accompaniment but that doesn't last forever . It may have a more polished musical production but fans of Cash's late American soldier trilogy will not have difficulty enjoying this album.

Third track 'Not Guilty' opens with a bright contemporary 'Pink Floyd' effort complete with crumbling Roger Walters vocals and melody.

There are 10 tracks overall and they tend to bleed into each other, no drastic diversion of genre remaining loyal to each other but somehow covering a certain length of musical journey. The song has a stronger lyrical continuity than the previous efforts but it was here I started to suspect this might be a concept album.

'Iamaman' comes fourth and amazingly I hear 'Bryan Ferry' with a song worthy of Roxy music fans. There is some sort of pedigree musical time lord regeneration process going on in this album. Fourth song in and I am drawing comparisons to some of my all time fave artist, but I'm not sure exactly how. That's always a good soon, if you can't boil something down to finite factors. The guitar keeps centre stage as instrument on this song too, with consistent, electric skank patterns.

The Englishness is revealed in full during this song as well with the lyrics' I am a man and there's nothing I do better than a punch-up'.

'Whisky time' and we are halfway through the album, a simple enough ditty that keeps up momentum but perhaps is in the shade alongside the earlier efforts but the lyrical content here, strategically placed after 'Iamaman' has convinced me this is a concept album. Or an autobiographical catharsis. Either works.

There is decidedly retro feel to this album and I can almost hear the needle click and recede as we enter the last 5 songs.

Indeed the 'B-side' treats us to some vintage Bless riff from clean electric guitar and it's none other than a cover/homage to the gospel classic 'John the Revelator'. The 'seventh seal' talks from is in tune with the 'apocalyptic' theme of the Bosche cover. This version has an almost Paul Weller quality to its credit in the backing guitars and percussion. Or maybe Weller was gospel all this time?

Track 7 'Spirit warning' seems a bit lost after the excitement of a cover but Glyn plods on nonetheless. The lyric is definitely a 'Floydesque'kind of Blues trip but the song doesn't travel far enough into the realms of psychedelic music you might expect. Not enough synth!

'Temptations' has a intriguing violin based intro that sets itself up in a different pace but we are soon into the lamentable 'Floyd/Reed ' style of song that is heavily populated throughout the record. It goes on a little too long carving another 'lull' in the energy of the album after the 'John the Revelator' cover.

As its the longest song on the album we are keen to get to ninth track 'The Seven seas of happiness' and I couldn't help notice a small DeBurgh-ism with the short burst of radio sample at the intro.

The use of 'chimes' or similar sounding effects at the end of the Chorus was with mentioning I thought. A much more upbeat chorus than before and sort of Christmassy believe it or not, unusual in such a tragic narrative present in all the tracks so far. I fell we may be at the 'climax' of the concept album, or the joyous conclusion anyway.

We finish with what I believe is another cover called' Amsterdam' and this sits pretty happily besides the second half of the collection. A bit more acoustic and something of a nautical tale of woe' nuance, mandatory Accordion playing ever present. A nice little guitar solo is given and overall the song does no harm to round off the album reaming as upbeat as its predecessor in the end.

The entire album has a lot to offer to music lovers of not just the acts mentioned but anyone with an open interest , the quality of song writing and production go hand in hand faultless and atmospheric.

From the quality of the album I was under the impression that Glyn Bailey was a thoroughly established artist, perhaps a quiet, unknown from one of Rocks great British family of bands so i was shocked to read his greatest success is still ahead of him.

It feels like it would be a sit down and sway with a mead of ale kind of album rather than a stand up, beer stained, sticky floored dive bar gig but then again, I was wrong about the cover!

Lewis MacLean