Terry Emm
Album: Petals Fallen Off The Sun
Label: Longman
Tracks: 9
Website: https://www.terryemm.co.uk

There are some labels that are almost a badge of honour, you know that if the release has that label that there is going to be something of quality on it. You may not like it, but you'll still have to acknowledge that what's there is real class. 4AD is a good example, Temple, Folkwit and Navigator others. What they all have is a vision that sees not only their field, but an inherent sense of what feels right to crossover. With the arrival of Terry Emm's follow up to "White Butterflies", "Petals Fallen Off The Sun" arriving in the office, I think I can add Longman to that list.

Bedfordshire based singer-songwriter-guitarist seems to slot right in. There is a mellowness, almost pastoral feel to his writing style. That's enhanced with a rich layering of sound from the likes of Tom Arnold, Vinnie Lammi and Richard Durrant who also produced the sound. It's like giving Emm a fertile grassland for him to lay down the flower meadow of colour to catch you eye, well in this case your ear.

If this album were a verb, it would be reflective, in both meanings of the word, both in returning and giving back that that comes to it as well as the inner reflection of the process of examining ones soul. Now if that sounds a little heavy, I guess it is in someways, don't be afraid. The trick is to turn that reflective nature so that you feel both singer and audience are reflecting as one and it says much for Emm's songwriting talent that he pulls it off. We may not always come to the same conclusion, but we, writer and listener are definitely on the same wavelength and almost certainly in one tune.

Some of the songs on "Petals Fallen Off The Sun" are definitely parts of the spirit trying to find voice, just as other songs are more strongly influenced by the world and spaces that Emm's visits, both in the physical and metaphysical sense.

The result is an album that has a richness about it. You can feel how it was pulled together, feel the thoughts that became the germs of the ideas that became the songs. It's not coincidence that two of the people name checked in the song titles, Monet and St. Augustine were creative thinkers in their day.

Definitely give one a check out and if you've got time, can I recommend you also take a look at Longman Records?

Neil King