Review: Ungagged - Where the River Meets the Sea

My good friend Tom Arnold (no, not the actor) is a professional drummer over in the UK.  He gave me two albums that he played on, and had asked some time ago for me to write one of my patented stream of consciousness, write as I listen, reviews.

Finally, I'm getting around to it.  Being unemployed, or only working part time, means I do have a bit more time on my hands as compared to normal, so I'm catching up on items like this that I've been meaning to do for awhile.

This album, entitled, "Where the River Meets the Sea," was released in 2006 under the moniker "Ungagged."  This one album project was recorded as a trio, with Tom Arnold on drums, Hammond organ (watch later for appropriate playing with organ jokes), Mark Allen on lead vocals and acoustic guitar (he also wrote all the material), and Richard Durrant on guitar and all other stringed instruments.

So, without further ado, the songs:

• Might Be the Reason:  A good opening number on the album.  A story song about people meeting along a railway trip.  Nice Hammond organ in the choruses.  The middle eight is a little bit too much of a break to me, but it does end with a nice subdued guitar solo.  Subtle arrangement in the third verse with some guitar punctuation and drum breaks giving some personality to the song.  So far, I'm enjoying this.

• Find a New Dream:  Another train song?  A song about moving on and leaving the past behind.  The singer's voice is calm and relaxing.  Very smooth sounding.  The main thought going through my head about the album so far is that it's very mature, and very well produced.  

• Let the Pages Blacken:  "Changed the key to your heart..."  Not sure if I like that metaphor.  Fingerpicking guitar and voice.  More laid back arrangement for this track so far.  Cello in the second verse?  A relationship song, talk of a letter, of needing the connection to keep going... Sometimes, you have to write for your own reasons, not for the pleasure of the intended recipient.

• I'm Not Afraid:  Starts uptempo, with banjo in the mix!  Uptempo, with solid backing vocals in the chorus that drives the song along.  Nice hi-hat and cymbal work.  Subtle.  The bass gets a bit of movement in this song also, which keeps the pace up.  Good stuff.  I'm almost thinking that these songs may be linked lyrically more than I caught on previous listens.  You could make a story moving forward with the songs on the album up to this point...

• Pull Away:  Relationship song, but more about family this time, talk of a father, being distant?  The music is a bit happier sounding than the lyrics would call for, I would think.   Not that it all has to be minor key and a downer with a song like this, but it's seems a bit of a mismatch for me.  I'm not feeling a real connection to this song, like I did with the others.  Some good Hammond work again from Tom near the end.  It's an instrument that doesn't get used as much now as it had in the past. 

• Reaction to You:  A song about how love makes you feel... A laid back song and arrangement, no drums so far.  Driven along by guitar and Hammond.  This middle eight worked for me, bringing me back into the song, to go along for the rest of the ride.  Now there's a turn at the end, making it seem like the reaction to the person in the relationship is now negative, that he wants to get out... Not sure where that came from...

• Jackie:  More relationship issues, again with parents/father in this track.  How the relationship at home affects the life outside of the home also.  He goes to jail in the middle eight!  Got into a fight with some soldiers...  Not a song that worked for me, although I did generally like the music for this one.  Just guitar and voice, with some other flourishes thrown in.

• If You Trip:  I think we're in the acoustic part of the album.  No drums again in this track so far.  Harmonium in this track, or is that an accordion?  The lyrics, again about someone walking a tightrope in their life, don't do much for me, but I am finding my head nodding along to the music, which is a good thing.

• Cold Cuts:  Another angry song, but with no drums.  Wait, here they are!  After the first verse or two.  I think the song could have been stronger had there been some sort of percussion at the start running up to the part of the song later on.  I think the songs may be better served by some more variety in the arrangement, or perhaps there were just too many drum free songs in a row, after the strong start the album had.  Ended a bit abruptly... 

• I'll See You:  Something about the start of this song just makes me smile.  Light percussion, the vocal, a guitar figure, just makes it all work for me.  I'm looking forward to the rest of this song, after having a bit of a dry spell in the middle of the album.  This almost feels like it could be the last song on the album, but I know there are two other songs.  We'll see how the rest of the album feels after this track.  The momentum of this song in the choruses really works for me.  An interesting counterpoint with backing vocals during the last part of the song.  One person saying "I'll see you again," while the other says "I won't see you, when you're dead and gone."

• Where the River Meets the Sea:  Piano ballad!  Haven't had one of these yet on the album.  I'm curious to see how this develops.  Almost any song about rivers meeting the sea works for me.  "The Sea Refuses No River" by Pete Townshend comes to mind.  This is not a copy of that song, but the metaphor still works.  No drums again.  Maybe I'm a sucker for the dramatic, but I think some different arrangements for some of these tracks could add some oomph to the message of the music, accenting or projecting the music more strongly.  

• The Offering:  Music as an offering, is the metaphor in the lyrics.  I'm enjoying the verses, but the chorus loses it for me, it's trying a bit too much to be inspirational, and be the *final song* of the album, whereas I think "I See You" could have been a more natural closer to the album.  Yes, it's trying a bit too hard at the end, with a "la la la" chorus, with the singer asking us to sing along.  Maybe it would work in a live setting, but on this album, it feels a bit contrived to me.

Overall, I have to say I enjoyed the album.  Yes, there's songs I don't enjoy as much as others, or that I think just don't work, but there's few albums out there that do meet that standard.  If you're looking for laid back music, that has a mellow feel to it, professionally done, then this is a good album to give your ears to for awhile.

Also, my compliments to the album packaging, I see many "independent" releases that the album art and packaging appear cheap and tawdry, but this album is put together very nicely, to the band photos on the front and back cover, to the lyric booklet, and even the font choice of the booklet credits looks professional.  

For those of you who like ratings, I'll give this 3 stars out of 5.  If the order is rearranged with the last song on the album dropped, and "I'll See You" at the end instead, I'll bump it up to 3.5.

Now, tomorrow, I'll review another release that Tom played on, a collection of songs called "Idiot Pop," under the band name "Yarn."