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Folk is like a hormonal teenager during a summer of sexual discovery – it seems to go with almost everything or at least give it a go. In an age where more is less it’s good to come across something like ‘Before The Ruin’. Drever, McCusker and Woomble may not have names that roll off the tongue but their collaborative album is very easy on the ear. Roddy Woomble is perhaps the most easily recognisable thanks to Idlewild. John McCusker produced his solo album ‘My Secret Is My Silence’ while Drever also appears on Idlewild’s song ‘The Weight Of Years’. It’s all very incestuous but the basic premise is three friends and long time collaborators deciding to release a body of work in earnest.
Much could be made of the fact that McCusker and Drever have both won BBC folk awards and that the trio are joined by the likes of Radiohead’s Phillip Selway and Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake but this album is notable for altogether different reasons. The very strengths of ‘Before The Ruin’ only serve to highlight its apparent weaknesses. The fact that these ten tracks are the fruits of some of the most respected artists in today’s folk scene only makes for disappointment. Very listenable but innocuous Crowded House moments like ‘Into The Blue’ simply don’t meet the bar set by the stunning opening track ‘Silver and Gold.’
A lot of this album passes you by, the times where passion drive a song into your head make you sit and rue what the rest of it could have been like. But that’s what makes this album so refreshing, even in the most wishy washy of songs there’s a beautiful harmony, slice of musicianship or one lyric that stops you from skipping entire tracks. A case in hand is ‘Moments Last Forever’ which is propped up by Heidi Talbot’s lovely harmonies.
‘Before The Ruin’ is an odd and contrary venture that tests your patience but when it rewards you it does so in leaps and bounds. The title track is a sheer joy to listen to. It cries out to be listened to live. It’ll get more than a few bums on seats for the trio. Every sound has that spikey Celtic attitude tinged with the warmth and melancholy of a pub just before closing time. “Each generation will have much less happiness to spare.”
And if this album only serves to get a few more people listening to McCusker and Drever then that’s no bad thing. Drever’s vocals warm your toes like a malt wiskey on a camping trip in winter. ‘Before The Ruin’ isn’t perfect, but the intention and the skill of delivery make you forgive its shortcomings because even at its so called worse it still has an earnest charm sadly lacking in a lot of the music around today.
