Everyone loves going to festivals and seeing a collection of amazing artists; you dance crazily to the lively bands and possibly sway to the solo singers. But you always get that band at a festival where you find yourself standing peacefully with people you know – and majority of the time people you won’t know – and you are all in some way connected because you are absorbed by the beautiful music from the band that are playing on stage. You get that warm feeling inside and those tingles down your spine and the hairs on your arms prick up because the music has taken you away; its drifted you away into another world, a better world. Well, that’s the exact feeling I got from when I first – and second and third and fourth etc – time I heard the music on Gerard & The Watchmen’s debut album Wooden Castles.
Bob Harris from BBC Radio 2 (UK radio station) said “really impressed. Knocked out, and wonderful on stage by all accounts.” And Harris is right, it is.
The music is bliss and it’s so easy to consume and be emotionally connected to it. The variety of instruments used help form together to create a powerful wave of music that flow into your ears. I’d say Long We Stood is my favourite – if I had HAD to choose one even though I love all the tracks – because no matter when, whether it’s just the male vocals singing the verse or the incredible lively chorus, the track is always very powerful.
The voices are incredible. You hear the strong masculine male vocals and then smoothly underneath them is the calm female vocals. But what I like is that the band is not just trying to be another folk band – they are not trying to jump on the Mumford & Songs folk band wagon – their music is folk yes but there is something different with this band and than other folk music.
To sum up, it’s a beautifully crafted album with songs that have been well-thought about so that the songs can individually hit you emotionally and make an impact. At the beginning I said this album reminds me of a band that you fall in love with at a festival because of the marvellous music, well what happens after that festival is over? You go and find that band and listen to their music again and again – and that is exactly what you will go with this band when you listen to their album. Gerard & The Watchmen will go far if they keep creating music as amazing as this.
Listen to their music from Wooden Castles below. For more about Gerard & The Watchmen go on Facebook here. And Twitter here.
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