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Mellow Candle - Swaddling Songs (1972)

Track listing:
  1. Heaven Heath 3:03
  2. Sheep Season 5:01
  3. Silver Song 4:26
  4. The Poet And The Witch 2:51
  5. Messenger Birds 3:43
  6. Dan The Wing 2:48
  7. Reverend Sisters 4:22
  8. Break Your Token 2:30
  9. Buy Or Beware 3:08
  10. Vile Excesses 3:16
  11. Loney Man 4:31
  12. Boulders On My Grave 3:29

Notes

Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Despite the fact that after thirty years "Swaddling Songs" is less of a challenge to listen to than it would have been in 1972, it still stands as a most brilliant documentation of the childhood lives of Clodagh Simonds and Allison Williams.

Having grown up in the strict Holy Child Convent School in Dublin, the two women were forbidden to listen to rock music, but listened covertly to Radio Luxembourg each night. Only when Simonds began writing a succession of hymnal pop tunes on her parents' piano did the two lives begin to converge.

After several false starts, Mellow Candle began to record "Swaddling Songs" in 1971 after moving to London, when Simonds was only eighteen. Though apparently not many songs had been written by Simonds herself, the results were amazing even after thirty years.

"Heaven Heath" and "Messenger Birds", both written by Allison Williams (née O'Donnell) Simonds' longtime schoolmate, added a contrasting touch to the album. Retaining the hymnal flavour of Simonds' songs, they are nontheless much odder in their melodies and rhythma, especially "Heaven Heath"'s brilliant harpsichord line, but retain the accessible melodies and amazingly beautiful vocals. "Messenger Birds" sets the mystical tone of the album - remiscent in places of Kate Bush's work on "The Ninth Wave" in its tale of travelling across the sea.

"Sheep Season" with its long instrumental outro and "Silver Song" (once covered by My Bloody Valentine) show the typical Simonds style of haunting and atmospheric pop tunes, not at all folky in instrumentation or sound. "Dan The Wing" was an amazing drama about evil, beating Laura Nyro's "Eli And The Thirteenth Confession" or Kate Bush's "The Dreaming" for explicit imagery of the Devil. "Break Your Token" was an upbeat, festive rocker, whilst the amazing overlaying of a guitar solo and beautiful vocals on "Lonely Man" was worth the price of admission alone. The closer "Boulders On My Grave" continued in that vein with Clodagh and Allison repeatedly chanting "Do do do do", "La la la la" and "Na na na na" in perfect harmony.

The album's centrepiece, though, was the amazing, chilling, piano-only "Reverend Sisters", in which the women's beautiful voices matched Simonds' amazing piano line and lyrics describing brilliantly the women's strict religious upbringing and its effects on them - almost a taste of Tori Amos twenty years before the fact. "Reverend Sisters" was remarkably honest yet not a preachy attack on religion - it was a matter-of-fact tale that will always amaze those fortunate enough to hear it.

"Buy Or Beware" and "Vile Excesses" rounded of the album excellently. Because of the (for its time) very difficult lyrical imagery, "Swaddling Songs" never charted and would not have been warmly received by critics. Mellow Candle soon disbanded and Simonds spent most of the 1970s working as a session singer.

Nonetheless, the beautiful, almost medieval-like vocal harmonies in "Swaddling Songs" were and unlike anything else in rock. Though the album has been seen as a folk album, "Swaddling Songs" in fact lacked any normal "folk" characteristics and was basically pure pop in charcter. Yet, the medieval and intensely mystical atmosphere of the record makes it a true sonic marvel of beauty and simple melodies. Thus, original LP copies of "Swaddling Songs" have become a valuable rarity that stands as testimony to the music's worthiness.