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Review: Sam Lee - Ground of Its Own [Album]

The Nest Collective // "Heartbreakingly lovely, sweet yet fiery"

by SamByrd, July 22nd, 2012 and has been Read 921 times.
Last Edited by: Ffion Davies July 23rd, 2012.

Sam Lee's debut release, 'Ground of its Own', with The Nest Collective is not like anything else out there. You may read this a lot, but really - in this case, it's absolutely true.

The album begins with a take on the folk song 'The Ballad of George Collins'. The song is fast-paced and warbling, with a strangely aboriginal percussion section. Sam Lee's vocals quickly take center stage, bubbling up, over and in between the instruments. The second song, 'On Yonder Hill', is not as arresting, but as it underlines the hare's role in folk tales, it maintains the indigenous feel of the first song with the steady jingle of what sounds like nothing so much as Native American ankle bells.

WATCH // 'The Gainsborough Packet'

Suddenly, on the third track, 'Wild Wood Amber', Lee takes an entirely new angle. A very old-sounding, sentimental ballad that begins like something out of Sinatra's era before surrendering entirely to melismas and folk violins. It's weird... but wonderful.

The fourth track, 'Goodbye My Darling', is heartbreakingly lovely, sweet yet fiery, sincere and the pace begins wistful and ends in a series of thrilling runs. Easily one of my favourite tracks.

The last four songs on the album are consistently slow and much less interesting to listen to than the first four - until you get to the last one, 'My Ausheen', which begins with a sample of a female vocalist and birdsong. It wraps up with beautiful, delicate harmonies that are entirely unexpected.

With such a folksy, anti-hip album, it's difficult to say whether this debut will make the splash it frankly should. These songs have existed for hundreds of years, presumably Sam Lee's interpretation will spin them further.

'Ground of its Own' is dedicated to Stanley Robertson, the late Scottish Traveller and balladeer, from whom Sam Lee inherited many of the folksy melodies threading through this starkly beautiful release.

Listen to:

• The Ballad of George Collins
• Goodbye My Darling
• Wild Wood Amber
• My Ausheen

Released 25 June and available on Amazon and Proper Music now!