How much does a record soak up the spirit of the place it’s recorded? Could Music From Big Pink have been birthed anywhere but Woodstock? Low anywhere but Berlin, by the wall? Inishbofin hosted A House’s I Want Too Much, and the songs were as harsh, bare and beautiful as the surrounding rocks, sand and storms.
Slade, Co. Wexford, just by Hook Head lighthouse, is where Salthouse put together Dream All Day. I have a nodding acquaintance with Slade, Co. Wexford. Life seems peaceful there – as Father Ted said of Craggy Island in the first episode ever: “It’s not exactly New York”.
And Salthouse’s second album, fittingly, is a gentle piece of work. That doesn’t mean it’s all soft: ‘One Eye Open’ is tough and subtly aggressive, and ‘Far Away Hills’ impressively stark (if lyrically a little obvious) ‘One Thing I’m Sure Of’ suggests CSNY’s easy languor while ‘An Even Keel’ nods at uncertainty and regret; Salthouse have range.
Niall and Stephen Colfer divide up guitar duties and while I’m not sure who does what, pints all round. Their guitar lines are sinuous and evocative. They have an undercurrent of anxiety when required, as in the opening ‘U’ll Move’, which is what Kid A might have sounded like had Radiohead sat out in the sun a little more. But enough existential ennui: thinking of Hook Head and the pleasure it must have been to make this record and the pleasure that comes out of the wonderful warm playing, the song that sticks out is the title track. I imagine a family sitting in a circle outside their house by the sea in the South-East, free as fuck I hear them strumming and singing: “All I want to do / Is dream all day and sleep all night”, and I think: that sounds like a plan.