Album Review: Peggy Sue – Choir of Echoes
Congregating at the edge of the nu-folk wave that saw peers Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling reach unprecedented heights of chart popularity, Peggy Sue are a band that have paid their dues to the alter of success.
After an almost two-year hiatus since their Peggy Sue Play the Songs of Scorpio Rising foray into film scoring, the Brighton threesome have clearly been in a drawn-out pursuit of a new sound and with fourth album Choir of Echoes it looks as if they have finally found it.
Whereas before the original Peggy Sue and the Pirates had a rough cut edge, this new Peggy Sue is streamlined slightly – along with the name – offering a smoother sound. The teenage angst has dissolved with age, leaving in its place a more mature approach to beautiful guitar melodies and softer tuned harmonies.
They’ve not completely converted from their roots though, as the DIY production they trademarked has not been fully produced out but has mellowed as it should with the help of producer Jimmy Robertson and long-term collaborator and mixer John Askew.
Opener ‘Come Back Around’ is a short and sweet introduction to the concept behind the LP. As the band put it: “[It’s] an album about singing. About losing your voice and finding it again. Voices keeping each other company and voices competing for space. The call and response of the kindest and the cruelest words. Choruses. Duets. Whispers and shouts.”
Its sparse and erratic arrangement is a simple yet effective mission statement, laying out from the off what the band are trying to achieve.
Voices are a common theme throughout Choir of Echoes as refrains meld the singers cleverly until Rosa Slade and Katy Young are almost one before the layers peel back to allow each their own moment and words.
‘Esme’ is a low-fi number with its steady beat and reflective guitar-led bed heard at every bend and it’s ‘Substitute’ where things pick up their pace. With an ominous quality, the song teeters on the right part of edgy as dark lyrics combine with a charged instrumental lament making it captivating throughout.
The ingenuously named ‘How Heavy the Quiet that Grew Between Your Mouth and Mine’ is where the vocals come back into play with heart-wrenching harmonies ringing true and hard. Its abruptness brings a breather to the middle of the album and is unsettlingly nostalgic with its delicate delivery.
Standout track ‘Idle’ sees the band start on a stripped back arrangement before it picks itself up into a rising crescendo of crashing drums, repetitive guitar and chanting vocals. All about how the devil makes work for idle thumbs; its intricacy and gospel influence is evident.
At thirteen tracks, Peggy Sue are clearly making up for lost time and Choir of Echoes does feel slightly laborious in parts but considering fans have been waiting so long for material it feels fair and is a well executed return from the cavernous world Peggy Sue have been out exploring.
– Sarah Joy
Choir of Echoes is available from January 27 on Wichita.
