Chris While And Julie Matthews
Album: Infinite Sky
Label: Fat Cat
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.whileandmatthews.co.uk/

By my reckoning, this is the eleventh Chris While and Julie Matthews album since the duos debut EP, "Blue Moon On The Rise" back in 1995, which is quite prolific by any standards and quite staggering when you consider that both lasses have been recording copious amounts of material with other bands and artists at the same time. In fairness I have to say "Infinite Sky" is the eighth studio album, but who's counting?

This may sound like a daft thing to say, but one of the things that I really look forward to about a new While & Mathews album is the songs. The main reason being that they have a well deserved reputation for the diversity of their subject matter. By way of example "Nie Wieder" covers the persecution of Jewish athlete, Gretel Bergmann, in the run up to the 1936 Berlin Olympics and which featured on the Radio Ballads.

By contrast "Shaky Town" pays tribute to the reaction of the people of Christchurch, New Zealand to their earthquake of 2011. Finding a silver lining in the spirit of the people around an event that could so easily have plunged everyone into deep despair, an interesting take.

Most of the album is recorded in more of a band style with bass, drums and additional guitar being added to vocals and instrumentation of the two main protagonists, giving the album a richer sound than that of a duo, Chris' daughter Kellie also gets to add her considerable vocal prowess as a backing singer.

This is a real songwriters album, but more importantly it's an entertainers album. Chris While And Julie Matthews may have been making records together for more years than they would care to remember, but they've always produced albums that stand neatly by themselves and "Infinite Sky" is a welcome addition to the canon.

Neil King