The British folk scene is one that is truly thriving at the moment. Each week it seems that we are introduced to a new fresh-faced artist or act that claim they are going to take the genre further.
Bobby Long however is the artist that is perhaps the most talented, yet sadly kind of slipped under the radar, in comparison to others, with his debut album ‘A Winters Tale’. Fortunately none of his talent and raw emotion that he puts into his music has wavered on his sophomore release ‘Wishbone’. Is this the record that has the potential to push him through to the next level?
Straight off the back, it is much more built up then his last, you can hear that he has gained more confidence in his music. The album has a good mixture of tones throughout the tracks; it is nice to hear the experimentation of more variety of genres leaking through into his music. He has still kept some of his folk roots, but you can hear characteristics of a more Americana vibe within the songs. Tracks like ‘Help You Mend’ just highlight the artists’ capabilities as a poet and musician and all his hard work has definitely paid off with this LP.
I absolutely loved his first album; there was something so raw and honest about his music, something that you don’t often hear nowadays. It made his music captivating and tasteful. When I first heard ‘Wishbone’, I was a bit taken aback, the voice sounded the same, but the lyrics weren’t as gloomy, the instrumental sounds used sounded more built up in comparison to his semi stripped down debut attempt. It sounded completely different whilst sounding the familiar somehow. After listening to it a few times, I really got into it. Bobby had taken all the good qualities and charm that was contained within his first album, and devolved upon it, to make a more layered and stylised CD. This record is a haunting one, and definitely one for the vinyl collection.
Rating: 9/10
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