The third album from husband and wife duo Christian and Joyce Bolland, aka The Bollands, sees them exploring a wide range of different musical ideas within the folk genre’s colour palette.
Recorded at The Lab with Olly Harmer, the formerly Hong Kong-based Kiwi duo also employed the musicianship of Koya Hisakazu on bass, Hamish West Walker (drums, percussion), Shimna Higgins (fiddle), and Finn Scholes’ trumpet. Joyce and Christian both add vocals and percussion, while also providing keys and guitar respectively.
It’s an energetic mid-tempo romp of meaningful personal and wider societal issues, mostly hanging off Christian’s Glen Hansard-like emotive vocals.
Things begin with the boisterous Crosshairs. While the song drives forward throughout the vocal sets the scene for the emotional vulnerability that the album presents.
The album’s title track blends jaunty with confrontational, lyrically dark but no doubt very danceable when played live. It’s a neat trick they pull off exceptionally well. The unambiguous Feilding presents a confronting image of a dark religious past, Christian’s own experience of cult life, while the slow build of Sometimes A Soul screams out trying to find love in pain.
‘All Of My Ghosts’ takes the listener on an emotional journey where they may find themselves lost in a world of direct contemplative and reflective thought.
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