Review – Brian Bond – Your Love Is Strange
Brian Bond has been one of my favourite singer/songwriters ever since his beautiful album, Ten Thousand Songs landed in my inbox. Released in 2009, that EP still gets a lot of play at my place. So when I received a copy of Your Love is Strange I cleared my day, put on a pot of tea and sat back and prepared myself for a quiet afternoon of entertaining music. And I was not disappointed.
I’ve been listening to this album for the last few weeks and have to say that this album could be my favourite for 2011. I love Bond’s simple arrangements. The songs are quiet and spacious. There is a lot of quietness in these songs but don’t mistake that with boring or with silence. These songs are beautifully crafted and presented and speak. Bond’s ability to write a simple love song without sounding sappy or overwrought leaves these songs with an intimacy and grace that is lacking in much of today’s popular music. He also has an uncanny ability to set the mood of the song by simply altering his vocal tone and phrasing. This can be seen in the song Under Your Thumb where the lyrics are about being in an oppressive relationship. The lyrics, the vocal ennui and the general dreariness of the instrumentation make this song a standout. When he sings “I just want to feel alive” you can feel the heaviness of spirit like a slap. That’s not to say that the song or any of the songs on this album are dirges or even dirge-like. For the most part the twelve songs are lively and hopeful.
Bond is a keen observationist and his strength as a songwriter is his ability to create an intimate setting from his introspection. The songs contain a warmth and honesty that draws you in making it easy to identify with the simple messages in the music. As I said earlier, these songs are sparse but this does not create a distance between the listener and the artist. Instead Bond creates a chumminess with his audience, a rapport built on a perceived shared experience of love and loss.
In the title song, Your Love is Strange, Bond has created a little gem by utilizing his flair for playing with words. “What is this emotion, love” is sung as both a question about what he is feeling i.e. what is love and a question to the object of his desire about the exact nature of the emotion i.e. is this love. It’s a very affecting method of playing on your heart-strings. The poignancy of the lyrics and the simple arrangement of guitar and voice make this song one of Bonds best.
As with all of Bonds albums, the vocals and production are spot on. The songs are clean and easy to listen to. The vocals clear and bright lying on top of the music and not lost in the mix. Bond is the sole musician on this album with the exception of Keith Carne who provided drums and percussion on some songs.
You can buy all of Brian Bonds albums from his website, or from Bandcamp. You can find more information about Bond on the above mentioned website or on his MySpace, and Facebook.
Brian Bond – I (Won’t) Give Up
Brian Bond – Your Love is Strange
Brian Bond – When Life Ain’t So Hard
