The only positive aspect of the fact the wider world hasn’t yet woken up to the genius of Bell X1 is that its members have had time to work on side projects. Earlier this year, Paul Noonan released the fine Printer Clips collaborations LP; now, following 2007’s Choice-nominated Kill Your Darlings and 2009’s excellent The Victory Dance, guitarist Dave Geraghty releases his first album as Join Me In The Pines.
Despite the new moniker, Inherit – mixed by regular Bell X1 studio mainstay Phil Hayes – is very much a solo project. Although he had some outside help, most notably from vocalists Clare Finglass and his own mother, Anne Geraghty, Dave wrote all the songs and played most of the instruments himself. These include guitars (natch), banjos, mandolins, violin, piano and synths.
The album’s melancholic tone is set with the gorgeous piano-led opener ‘Mezzanine’. He has a strong voice and there’s an autobiographical feel as he gently croons, “I’m done with school/ I’m London bound/ washed up in Kentish Town/ On Countess Road she showed me how/ to paint ivories with limbs that flow.” There’s an occasional folk feel – most notably on first single ‘Joy is a Lion’ – but a song such as ‘In The Ground’ is positively soulful: “Wrapped it up good and put it in the ground/ I’ve been the one that kept your sunshine down.”
‘Golden Guilt’ is light and ambient, but there’s darkness too. With its menacingly plucked guitar, the ethereal ‘Should Not Roam’ is most haunting: “How can you or I fix what neither one broke/ before our whole world goes up in smoke?/ Sometimes we hold on too tight...”
Although it starts with what sounds like an old Air riff, the groovy, bluesy ‘Man With A Mission’ features a memorable refrain of “He’s got it...I want it... he’s got it.”
Inherit hints at folk, trad, blues, soul, classical and futuristic influences, but brilliantly refuses to be nailed down. Go join him in the pines. Hopefully it’ll get crowded in there.
OUT NOW.