DAVID BREWIS - The Soft Struggles

This isn't the first time David Brewis has tried his hand at a side project away from Field Music: after three albums under the name School Of Language, the English musician steps further into the open with a record that departs from the band's elegant art-pop in favour of a soft-jazz-blues approach, one that in its premise recalls the live-in-studio genesis of "Astral Weeks", without giving up the melodic density that has long defined his style.

The musicians were granted full expressive freedom, with just a few guidelines and a jam-session spirit doing the rest. Joining David Brewis on this adventure are a string quartet, a horn section, the voice of Eve Cole, his brother Peter Brewis (drums and percussion) and Sarah Hayes of Admiral Fallow (flute and piano).

To be fair, "The Soft Struggles" echoes the music of Van Morrison more in method than in sound, evoking his enchanting acoustic folk-blues power on the vibrant title track and a delicate soft-blues languor on the elegant waltz of "Start Over".

Another source of inspiration the author has openly cited is Colin Blunstone's album "One Year": Brewis captures its refinement and grace on the suave, sensual "Keeping Up With Jessica" and on the romantic torch song that opens the album, "Can We Put It In The Diary?".

"The Soft Struggles" is a solo work, but it's also a major collective effort. The songs overflow with lyrical and harmonic ideas: some tracks sound like the product of an ideal collaboration between Pentangle and the Xtc of "Mummer" (the dazzling "Tomorrow"), while others bring into focus a rapport between the musicians that has the scent of the early '70s (the late-psychedelic jazz-blues of "High Time").

The prevailing sense is of a project conceived in full creative exuberance, outside the usual framework of the parent band: David Brewis gives in to the fragile tenderness of romanticism by handing the delicate "When You First Meet" over to Eve Cole's voice, and conversely indulges in minimalist jazz rigor on the dark "It Takes A Long Time".

Art-pop is a complex thing to handle, but credit where it's due to "The Soft Struggles", an album that not only avoids any unnecessary excess in its writing and arrangements, but boasts a fluidity and spontaneity that become even more apparent with every listen.

In this spirit of artistic emancipation, it's no surprise that the final two tracks upend the album's few rules of the game, first with a lush horn section that pulses harder than any rhythm section ("The Last Day"), and finally with an austere madrigal that fans of Andy Partridge will relish to the point of delirium.

Admirers of Field Music's pop-prog and occasionally funky alchemy will no doubt find it hard to get on the same wavelength as an album that seems, on the surface, wistful and pastoral. But history teaches us that the pure of heart and spirit are granted the strength to withstand the judgment of time: sooner or later, "The Soft Struggles" will win you over without reservation.

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12/05/2023