Occupying the misty centre of the post-rock/post-classical Venn diagram, London-based singer songwriter A.A. Williams channels aspects of both sounds on her debut LP Forever Blue, which follows a self-titled EP and a collaboration with Japanese band MONO released last year.
Forever Blue is frustrating because it is a monument to what could have been. Songs with gigantic potential are routinely batted off course by the addition of themes and layers which blur rather than sharpen the overall picture – the unsettling 'Wait' is great for the first three minutes, the instrumentation watertight and knitting together neatly under Williams' delicate vocals, but falls away into bluster and bombast. It's the same story on opening track 'All I Asked For (Was To End It All)'.
And when taken to its extreme, this reckless policy of 'extra layers = extra power' proves the album's ultimate undoing at the incongruous crescendo of 'Fearless', where the throaty scream of guest vocalist Johannes Persson from Cult of Luna comes crashing out of the leftfield to terminally derail a promising track. It doesn't fit, and just doesn't feel right to listen to – and the fact that despite this it doesn't feel wrong in the context of the album indicates the problem with Forever Blue. Post-rock is by definition an almost limitless genre, but this album struggles for trying to take on too much.
That's not to say we have anything against Cult of Luna members appearing on the album – Persson's bandmate Fredrik Kihlberg provides vocals on 'Glimmer' which is a beautiful example of how the loud/quiet dynamic can work when applied thoughtfully and shows that Williams is devasting when things fall into place. 'Melt' also sidesteps the pitfalls, starting out gentle and brooding then exploding into something epic and life-affirming, and the surprisingly tender 'Dirt' (featuring Tom Fleming, formerly of Wild Beasts on guest vocals) is a dextrous display of Williams' vocal range.
Gloomy, atmospheric but with a blunted cutting edge, Forever Blue falls foul of over-reaching. The talent is undoubtedly there, but is too often muffled by layers and experimentation which fit like square pegs in round holes. Williams is one to keep an eye on, although it's hard not to feel that she has sold herself short this time around.
Words - Joe Ponting