Have to admit to never having heard any of Mr Lakeman’s material before but I was pleasantly surprised how beautiful and varied this album is. It’s a beguiling acoustic jolly jape laced with strings and musically it has an overwhelming upbeat and sincere feel about the 13 tracks on FF.
Lakeman has a real passion in his voice, which is not always akin to acoustic artists. He isn’t afraid to push a few boundaries and express a sense of urgency and joy about his music, which is such a huge draw in the gorgeousness of his songs.
‘Lady of the sea (hear her calling)’ comes crashing in with an eclectic mix of guitars and violins and it’s not too dissimilar to the sound that the Wonderstuff had during their ‘Elvis’ period. It’s so catchy, you can’t help but like it.
Besides the album’s acoustic stance it has a real country tinge, but manages to keep on the right side by being a bit more edgy than the plod and boredom that is a trademark of some parts of that genre.
‘The white hare’ is beautiful and my favourite track on this album. The banjo is the backbone of this song while Lakeman soothes us with his golden larynx. He double tracks his vocals to really bring the harmonies through. It brings a tear to your reviewer’s eyes. ‘The Colliers’ seems to tell a tale of a warring family that strikes death and destruction into the local community. It’s much more gritty and harsher that some of his other songs.
The album lyrics have a very downbeat feel about them. Sometimes the grimness of the words can be harsh but Lakeman pulls it off by ensuring the music doesn’t match his scribblings. Some fine harmonies and stomping violins / fiddles are prominent throughout FF and it encourages the listener to stay with this bag of beauties.
‘Final Lot’ is a racy acoustic number. You can almost feel that Lakeman is spilling blood while powering along the fretboard, it’s stripped and shows it’s barebones, thankfully those bones are clean and packed with calcium.
Balance this against ‘band of gold’ and you couldn’t get 2 songs so different in terms of style. His slow songs are the Aces of the album, brilliant and the sort of songs Damien Rice could only ever dream of.
Freedom Fields is a belter of an album, and Lakeman is in a class of his own with both originality and passion, hedonism awaits!
