Releases
Ainslie Henderson – Growing Flowers By Candlelight
Amphibian Husbandry
Oh yes. This is gonna be brutal. An ex-Fame Academy student (remember that breeding ground for new talent which brought us Lemar, and, er, Alex Parks?) releasing a 'serious' album called Growing Flowers By Candlelight... how can this NOT be a disposable piece of crap just waiting to be ripped to shreds?
Erm, it's quite good, actually. Please don't hurt me. This is a pretty damn decent collection of astonishingly well-written largely acoustic numbers, the kind of stuff that would make you sit up and take notice at a local open mic night. Certainly, it's not ground-breaking stuff, but its quiet melodic charms are nigh on impossible to resist. Take 'Don't Say' for example: it swings along with a babbling brook of a piano sound quite nicely, but there's something there that makes it just a little bit special. 'I Need Reminded' is the kind of folk-tinged melancholy Idlewild would be proud of, mournful cellos making lines like "how do I start leaving our love?" nothing short of heartbreaking. Far from being the cheese-fest I'd expected, this is powerful stuff, with 'Daytrip' in particular proving to be almost unbearably moving, its sparse instrumentation recalling a bleak winter's day when it seems all hope is lost.It's not all good: 'Go Back To Sleep' is rather unnecessary, and 'Find A Lighthouse' is just a bit dull, but on the whole, this is one of the year's biggest musical curveballs. 'Growing Flowers By Candlelight' is a rewarding listen, and if you can swallow your pride for as long as it takes to be seen buying this record, it will be well worth it.
Rating: 4/5
Tracklisting
- Dust
- Don't Say
- I Need Reminded
- Daytrip
- Go Back To Sleep
- Love I Remember
- Finding A Lighthouse
- Body To Bed
- Man Made
- Roald Dahl Books
- While They Wait.
Further links
- Ainslie Henderson (ainsliemusic.com)
- Official site of the more credible solo project from the ex-Fame Academy star
- Ainslie Henderson on Myspace
- Official site of the Edinburgh-based solo artist
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