- Label: 'Fallen Tree Records'
- Genre: 'Folk'
- Release Date: '7th June 2024'- Catalogue No: 'FTRC1035'
Our Rating:
The Fugitives are a Vancouver-based acoustic folk-roots group headed by songwriters Adrian Glynn and Brendan McLeod.
They are backed by banjo player Chris Suen, violinist Carly Frey and Cole George on drums.
On the group's previous album, ‘Trench Songs’, they adapted WW1 poems written by young soldiers.Without trivialising this subject matter they turned the words into songs of hope rather than despair.
Continuing with their bold mission of writing uplifting songs about serious life and death issues their sixth album takes on the climate emergency. Glynn explains that “It’s upbeat because there’s a lot of resolve to be found in joy.”
McLeod adds that the environmental experts they spoke to all cautioned against writing more sad songs. He says “We know the world’s messed up. What’s missing are more invitations to get real about making changes. And to do that, we have to get less precious about the subject.”
The hunch is that listeners are more open to happy tunes than they are to songs of doom and gloom. A good example of the strategy in action is in the title track which turns a potentially depressing thought into a celebratory chant.
Underlying all this is the sobering reflection, contained in the songs After You’re Gone and Ash, that the climate crisis is a threat to the survival of humanity not the planet, which will carry on just fine without us.
Wing and a Prayer addresses the human tendency to close our eyes to problems and pretend that everything’s fine when it’s plainly not. This point is made without adopting a holier than thou stance. We’re all in this together is the subtext.
This album is an invitation to party like it’s the end of the world while hoping against hope that it’s not.
