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Euro Childs’ ‘Cheer Gone’ has an air of lineal decent upon rotation, distancing himself somewhat from his erstwhile affiliations with a rounded sense of maturation and worldly sensibility. This, his fourth solo album, further removes him from the playful psychedelic folk symposiums of the defunct Welsh pop-rockers Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, for a more regressive sound steeped in tradition and judgement. The distance travelled to Nashville in order to work with Lampchop’s produced Mark Never has been somewhat of an inspiring move for the singer-songwriter, helping hone a very distinctive sound enshrined in the archaic convention of country craftsmanship.
'Cheer Gone’ swings with a capricious nature in tune to its title: ‘Autumn Leaves’ opens to the sound of keys capitulating and falling to seasonal change, slow-burning with a Ben Folds warmth; ‘Summer Days’ and ‘Her Ways’ both jogging along to the forlorn sentiment once led by The Kinks’ ‘Sunny Afternoon’. However, foresight can be felt within the musical arrangement and lilt of Childs’ vocal as the tracks’ range and structure minimise with poignancy. ‘My Love Is Gone’ strums with elegiac emotion and forlorn lyricism (“Summer’s here my love is gone/Once was flowers in her hair/Now I can’t find her away where’), standing as a curt reply to the amiable welcome of the opening tracks, and a return to his more folkier stance.
The nefarious intonation of the earthly ‘Farm-Hand Murder’ returns to lurid corners of the raconteurs persona, made darker by the unsettling monotone of his vocal. The overall sober demeanor may appear lack-lustre, however its result is cold-blooded and chilling. Childs has not deracinated himself fully from his heritage however, with ‘O Ein Daear’ ringing out like like a sombre Welsh choir from the darkest of valleys. Accordingly, it seems a little superfluous and lost in translation, along with his final chipper ditty ‘Sing Song Song’.
In all, Euros has produced something quite distinctive in style and sentiment. The outcome is something incredibly morose, with his retrospective outlook being somewhat remorseful. What is retained most from ‘Cheer Gone’’s resonations is his lust for creating something that ultimately unilluminating, leaving little for new listeners to grasp and retain.
