Album Reviews |

John Graham Leslie



The Land, The River, The Sea 7 ( 2008 )
Cool Rain / Sugarman / Ballygan / Whispering / Petals of the Rose / Song for Charlotte / Small Town / The Ballad of Vincent Rose / The River / Fields of Rye / The Plough

Managing Plymouth Argyle in Football Manager 2008 is very true to life. So far in my current save game, i've finished just outside the playoffs two years running. So, being a small club with a small reputation, my best players have all buggered off to join so called bigger clubs and i'm left with half a team and a bunch of kids. My next game then is home to Preston as I sit 19th in the Championship after 33 games played and coming into the game on a five match losing streak. Must do better! Oh, John Graham Leslie? Well, this is singer/songwriter stuff with a pop/rock production. 'Cool Rain' for instance has very cool and smooth vocals, your usual bass, guitar and drums and also a fiddle. The fiddle is extra texture rather than upfront, but that works well. The close of the song is great, pretty dramatic. Good stuff and it's distracted me from my managerial hypnosis. Even better stuff is the more stripped back 'Fields Of Rye', just John and guitar to open before gently and delicately fleshed out, just enough. It's a lovely song and no mistake, the female backing vocals helping John out and the whole thing sounds slighly Irish fields, sunshine, beautiful landscape and a pint of guiness. Yeah, it's good.

Goal! 1-0 to Plymouth within 30 seconds, get in there! Where was I? Oh yes, 'Sugarman' continues this Irish feel. It also continues this albums solid, agreeable tone. This is a good listen, is 'The Land, The River, The Sea'. You know, the instrumentation is good, the songs are well constructed and when, such as during album highlight 'Sugarman' we get a little jig of sorts whilst the rhythm section suddenly pound away quite scarily actually - we also get goosepimples. Well, we do in our house at least. This is a great song! Ah, the fiddle!! Final whistle, we've won 3-1. Blimey! Anyway, check this album out if you can. It's not mind-shatteringly brilliant and neither are Plymouth Argyle, but it's an attractive solid outfit in a beautiful part of the world, and in this day and age, you can't really argue with that.

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