With his new record, The Great White Sea Eagle, James Yorkston has elevated his craft. The Domino release succeeds not just due to Yorkston's efforts, but thanks too to those of Nina Persson (The Cardigans) and the members of The Second Hand Orchestra.
The music here is elegant, yet loose. Yorkston composed these on piano and not guitar like usual, and the arrangements were done quickly, without a lot of over-thinking of them. The results here are beautiful, with the performances having an immediacy that's rare indeed. "An Upturned Crab" and "The Heavy Lyric Police" are spry, with piano-lines carrying these into a special place. The other instruments that hover around the central tune and vocals add ornamentation, and refine the emotions being revealed by the words being sung.
On "A Sweetness in You", the piano acts almost as a second voice, a playful companion to Yorkston's hushed vocals. The material has the heart of early Blue Nile numbers, and the tangible realness of The Delgados. Yorkston and co. use The Great White Sea Eagle to redefine what chamber pop (for lack of a better term) is capable of. The music exists largely outside that label, of course, occupying its own unique space.
The presence of Persson also adds so much to Yorkston's usual high quality material. She adds a lightness to "Mary" that makes the tune even more bittersweet than it already would have been, while "The Harmony" finds Persson's voice one of many elements in a composition that is both haunting and catchy. Cardigans fans may be surprised to find how Nina is one of many players here, and it remains a Yorkston release, but he remains a supremely wise band leader, and this record is easily his career peak. So far, that is.
The Great White Sea Eagle by James Yorkston, Nina Persson, and The Second Hand Orchestra is out now via Domino.
[Photo: Nadja Hallstrom]