Brown Horse impress on their 3rd album ‘Total Dive’
The Norwich-based band get their country on for their new record.
★★★★☆
Photo: Deva O’Neill
Brown Horse are back with their exhilarating third record, Total Dive. Released on Loose Music, the album sees the band scaling new heights and putting together their most captivating and comprehensive collection of songs yet.
The Norwich-based band are uniquely made up of four contributing songwriters — Patrick Turner, Nyle Holihan, Emma Tovell and Rowan Braham — who are able to combine and collaborate effortlessly to create songs that sound like so much more than the sum of their individual parts. Their songs are full of razor-sharp tension and an electric energy that surges at speed throughout the entire record. The guitars rage and swirl into symphonies, and the songs are dripping in sheer outlaw country.
The album explodes out of the blocks with the blazing opener Sorrow Reigns. The song is loaded with anxiety. The wailing lead guitars mirror the tension that rises seemingly uncontrollably throughout the song. Lead singer Patrick Turner’s vocals sound more than just worried. They sound desperate.
Just as the tension breaks when the song ends, we are thrown into the whirlwind of noise that makes up lead single Twisters. It is another example of the stunning, weaving guitar lines that characterise so many of these songs. Its massive chorus and lush harmonies are as infectious as the music is furious. When an album kicks into action with two raging tracks like these, you know you’re in for a treat.
Whilst Brown Horse are more than capable of rocking, they’re also not afraid to slow down and unwind. The stunning Hares changes the pace without losing any of the intensity or without it sounding any less captivating or compelling.
Total Dive is a tour de force in compiling a collection of songs that do so much more than simply tell stories. They drag you inside them and take hold of you. Brown Horse have a duality that is as rare as it is precious. They are incredibly tight. Yet, they are also not afraid to loosen up and let a song really sing. Comeback Loading could slot in seamlessly alongside the songs of Jason Isbell, whilst the title track rallies up a cacophonous hurricane of Neil Young-inspired noise.
As a band, Brown Horse are made up of excellent individual pieces. Tovell’s pedal steel and Braham’s organ parts wash over the songs to create lush soundscapes. Turner’s Richard Thompson-meets-Bruce Springsteen-style vocals anchor it all into place as Holihan’s guitar work keeps you on your toes, whilst it bursts through each song and into your brain.
They are so much more than the sum of their parts. Total Dive really feels like a group effort in the truest sense. When you combine all of these fantastic individual elements with a shared songwriting vision that offers the musical glue that congeals it all together, you end up with a potent collection of songs.
Total Dive swells and rises into raging cacophonies of intertwining guitars and desperate vocals. You simply can’t not get caught up in these songs. They are as captivating as they are blazing. There are more than just stories living within these songs. There are entire universes. On Total Dive, Brown Horse are showing us all that they are so much more than just the UK’s answer to Americana music. They are simply one of the leading Americana bands on either side of the pond, period.
Total Dive is out now via Loose Music.
