Lizzie Nunnery & Vidar Norheim
Album: Songs Of Drink And Revolution
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 5
Website: http://www.nunnerynorheim.com

They say time moves faster the older you get, nature's joke for not making the most of your youth, but can it really be two years since Lizzie Nunnery & Vidar Norheim released "Black Hound Howling"? It was an album that really marked Nunnery not just as a songwriter, but wordsmith and poet. An album that captured the sense of drama in a series of songs that she captures in her plays and with Vidar Norheim at her side she had found a muse to help those words to find form and purpose. It was an album that spoke of injustice and against greed.

The title of "Songs Of Drink And Revolution" may give the game away a bit in terms of theme, but it definitely doesn't give away the game as far as context is concerned. These are songs that with the addition of brass get a real northern, gritty feel in there to support the lyric and narrative, it also sounds very live, it also sounds from the heart, rich in spirit and passion.

There is a seething resentment that burns through the five tracks of the EP, by the end of it you are left in no doubt why the title mixes drink and revolution, the path of one leading to the other and often it's the bitter regret of not being able to follow through on the promises by the people to the people that cause that regret to flow in a liquid form, the lack of power creating despair.

If that makes "Songs Of Drink And Revolution" sound like it's in a dark place, well it is, but it's not maudlin. Nunnery writes strong songs, there is still fight in her characters, it's there in the opening song, "One Day I Want To Get Straight" and it's there in the sign off track, "Two Revolutionaries". This is an inspiring recording, it sparks with great writing, great performance and great arrangement all the way through and yes, it's poetry.

Neil King