Whimsical Creatures - Wistful Thinking
PV009
Whimsical Creatures is a new venture/ project from I Am The Manic Whale’s Michael Whiteman and Ella lloyd who are basically friends who decided to create a more folksy fully acoustic duo to record songs written that needed an outlet different to that of I Am The Manic Whale.
As I say this is a more gentle form of music, the absence of guitar and synthesiser makes a step change, there are still drums in the sound but sympathetically delivered which also encourages careful listening to fully grasp the very nuances of the music,
As always with Michael you have songs that look at the world in a different way. This album has songs about butterflies and the channel tunnel for instance. Hardly Heavy Metal Thunder! This is actually very fitting as there is a gentleness to these songs. The name Whimsical Creatures is very apt, in that it suggests a lighthearted way of seeing things in an unusual yet not always serious way.
In this albumI get a sense of lightness and wonderment about certain thing, this in itself is expressed in the joyful tones of the music it may be light hearted but the music is approached with serious intent.
There are also lashings of flute spead across the album along with acoustic 11 string guitar piano amd autoharp to fill out the sound.
The album has 8 tracks ranging in length from 3 to 4 minutes with several longer track of 6 or 7 plus minutes duration, Nothing here overstays it welcome though it is really an album of gentllity and warm like a warm summers day.
The albums commences with A journey Of Five Lifetimes which is about Butterflies and their generational journey from africa to the uk oftenn via mainland Europe This is mainly completed by successive generations as the life cycle of a butterfly is generally fairly short. Although if they hibernate that cycle can be longer.
The song opens with a flute playing a sound scape that would normally be a synth wash but uses an alternative idea to strong effect.
Next track is Away With The Fairies this has a lot of rippling piano lines throughout again to good effect the vocals are shared between Ella who normally sing the lead with Michael providing backing vocals.
The song appears to be about using imagination as a child to.play although without the words before me its not immediately clear.
Begin Again Again is next this is about starting again after setbacks and determining to try again, It is an upbeat positive song of intent.
Better Than This follows and this has great dynamics to it with an interesting vocal from Michael.
There is a strong percussive element to this track that I feel suits it well with staccato guitar chords giving a great rhythm to proceedings, The song appears to challenge the rise and use of AI to create both literary and musical works and question its worth and results. It’s a timely song as the use of AI i is nvery much on the rise there wa a lot of it about theVelvet Sundown albums that appeared on Spotify recently that added a lot of fiel to that fire.
Next we have the Track Stained Glass which is about the process of making and installing stained glass windows to building as a way of recording and preserving thoughts, memories and ideas for posterity and a long time as part of history.
The Process Is More Important Than The Outcome.
Again another interesting track an iinstrumental one at that with lots of crashing piano chords and a graceful flute countermelody in place.
The Stargazer is next this is the albums longesttrack and talks of one who looks at the stars and ponders the vastness of space where some formulate and estimate distances and mea i gs this stargazers just looks and wonders about it all.
It is a gentle song, A very fine one nonetheless indeed there is a lot happening within this song possibly my favourite alongside Better Than This nonetheless which i enjoyed for its percussive sound and dynamics
The final song of this album Is The Undersea Tunnel which is pean to that marvellous construction The Channel Tunnel which links Folkestone to Calais completed in
1994 after 6 years of work it was a huge undertaking and one that wss successfully completed on time although its origin story goes back k to 1802 when it was first proposed it took a mere 196 years to reach fruition. The song told this construction and praises its existence and its worth to the nation that we can get to Paris in under 3 hours from central London to Paris in 3 hours is remarkable really i have been o Le Shuttle but not on the Eurostar service as yet.
The song is a worthy finale to this most interesting and varied album of songs.
I’m sure it will find an audience especially with f Big Big Train Passengers as its themes are in a similar vein at points.
Info here: Music | Whimsical Creature