Second solo offering from 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards, not for those of a cheery disposition…….

'Judgement is not avoided by your unbelief, your lack of fear, nor by your prayers to any little idol here'.

No David Eugene Edwards record was ever going to be a joyful celebration of life, love & religion, was it? For those looking for justification for a solo project over the darlings of Alt. Happy, 16 Horsepower, in Wovenhand he has replaced the sonic ferocity that marks 16HP's hellfire & brimstone with a brooding intensity that throbs & rumbles under dark, overtly biblical, poetry, but in no way suffers for the shift in intensity. In fact, with lyrics these beautiful, I submit to you that they are best served by these sparse arrangements, burning slowly before reaching a powerful crescendo that is almost inexplicable, given the apparent lack of instrumentation.

Whilst utilising additional help here & there, 'Consider The Birds' is, as much of Edwards existence, a solo project. An accomplished & renown multi- instrumentalist he deals with most of the arrangements alone, adding tasteful overdubs with only Daniel Memahons piano providing any sort of consistent support.

Edwards is very much the real deal. He walks it like he talks it. While comparisons to Nick Cave are endless &, to be fair, not entirely unfounded (for this album set the controls for 1992's 'Henrys Dream'). But whereas Cave's father was a middle classed English teacher from Bumblefuck, Australia, David Eugene Edwards grandfather was a genuine & bona fide Nazarene preacher. The teenage Edwards would follow him around Colorado listening to his wild, enthusiastic sermonising. By seventeen, however, David Eugene was married & set out to make his living in rock & roll. This went down about as well as could be expected & the old preacher offered nothing but eternal damnation as words of advice.

To this day Edwards performances take on an almost religious reverence, engaging, frightening and intense, at the conclusion of which he retires to solitude & prayer in preference to groupies, hangers- on & mindless small talk. It is this backdrop that lends a real authenticity to Edwards dark, majestic song writing and makes 'Consider the Birds' a work of uncompromising beauty. Sinister, and foreboding, this record should not be considered wilfully obtuse, but simply the words of a troubled man wrestling some of his own demons, utilising a language and sense of allegory that is as old as the great book itself. Amen.

7 (out of 10)