When The Haar Rolls In

The title refers to the fog that comes in off the North Sea, an image that explains a lot about James Yorkston’s fourth album. But although the Fife troubadour might be of nu-folk stock (and this record features contributions from The Watersons, Marry Gilhooly and Olly Knight), his low-key, meandering tunes co-opt freeform drones and open-ended arrangements to offset the rusticity. In other words, he’s the quintessential Domino act, somewhere between David Kitt and (of course) Nick Drake.
Songs like ‘Tortoise Regrets Hare’, the title tune and ‘Queen Of Spain’ are delicate, downcast things, lilting and swaying in the faint breezes generated by sawing violin and raindrop-plonking piano. Yorkston also possesses the wise naivete of a Robert Wyatt to offset the laconic Ray Davies timbre of his voice, and the acoustic core of these songs is jewelled with all the elements of a small orchestra: strings, vibraphone, timpani, mandolin, bouzouki and concertina.
The result is a true mongrel of an album. If the maritime air of ‘Midnight Feast’ could be a funereal folk club sing-song, it might also qualify as a hypothetical Kate Bush contribution to The Wicker Man soundtrack. Plus, ‘Would You Have Me Born With Wooden Eyes?’ is surely a contender for song title of the year.
When The Haar Rolls In is odd as two left feet, and all the better for it.
Key Track: ‘Queen of Spain’