by David Wilikofsky
On the surface, folk music seems like an odd choice of inspiration for the first collaborative album between The Body and BIG|BRAVE. The two groups have been carving out their own niches in “heavy” music for years, and sonically folk music couldn’t be more opposite. But the reality is that folk music is a genre built on hardship and violence, from protest songs to murder ballads; it is, for lack of a better term, quite heavy music. Judging from Leaving None But Small Birds, it’s a fact these two bands understand well. The album is a genre fusion that works on all levels, one that finds the perfect balance between the bands’ personal aesthetics and the spirit of its source material.
Let’s start with that source material. For Leaving None But Small Birds, The Body and BIG|BRAVE mined songs from across English, Canadian and American folk music traditions, mixing and matching melodies and phrases. The end results are as much archetypes as songs; tracks like the down and out “Hard Times,” the murder ballad “Polly Gosford,” and the lost love lament of “Once I Had A Sweetheart” sound instantly familiar because they represent such well defined genre tropes. Although the instrumentals admittedly do diverge from traditional folk arrangements, they take a similar tack by keeping things structurally simple. The band locks into grooves, building instrumentals with short, repeated melodies. It’s a choice that allows the narratives of the lyrics to shine through, honoring the storytelling roots of the genre.
Despite the obvious reverence and respect for folk music, Leaving None But Small Birds is anything but traditional. You’re not going to mistake this album forThe Anthology of American Folk Music, but the way in which the bands fuse heaviness into these songs enhances rather than distracts, each riff or squall of noise heightening the drama and pathos of their stories. The droning backdrop of “Hard Times” brings to mind the dusty, barren company town described in the lyrics. The churning opener “Blackest Crow” conjures windswept cliffs and crashing waves, providing a sonic representation of the physical distance between the narrator and their lover. The sluggish riffs of “Once I Had A Sweetheart” allow you to feel the inner turmoil of the narrator after being abandoned by their lover. The musical choices make these stories of woe land even harder.
This album hits a sweet spot for me, balancing heaviness and dissonance with traditional songcraft; it ends up sounding like the long lost lovechild of Fairport Convention and PJ Harvey, which is about the highest compliment I can give. Here’s hoping that Leaving None But The Birds is the first of many collaborations between The Body and BIG|BRAVE.