Now this is really excellent, a must for anyone out there who likes their folk fast, sometimes furious, sometimes loud. Exuding the exuberance and enthusiasm of youth, Great Big Sea hail from the small Canadian fishing village of Petty Harbour, and this album features re-workings of traditional Newfoundland music, often interwoven into their own songs. A delicious concoction of pop and folk simplicity.
Up is their second offering, recorded originally in 1995. In the following year they beat The Rankin Family to receive the Canadian East Coast Music Award - 'Entertainers of the Year'. In Canada Up soon went Platinum, and is now available in the UK for the first time.
Comparisons with The Pogues are occasionally inevitable, but the Great Big Sea sound is far more disciplined and there is rarely suggestion that all around is drunken mayhem. Nevertheless, they are a highly spirited band, whose sound is rich and varied without compromise to vocal clarity. Check out the linguistic gymnastics on Mari-Mac and Billy Peddle and you'll see what I mean.
An acoustic four piece band, Great Big Sea are mainly driven by guitar, accordion, fiddle, and tin whistle, which are all given ample airing, behind which snare drum and bodhran beat out the rhythm. Screaming out of the speakers, Up opens perversely with the old Slade song Run Runaway (yes I did say Slade), which is rattled through in less than three minutes, setting a standard for most of the remaining fourteen songs and tunes.
A couple of listens should leave you hooked and singing along. Folk idiom packaged with pop simplicity. Great fun.
Peter Stevenson
