SINGLE REVIEW: FORTY ELEPHANT GANG - DARK SHADOWS

If there's one group who can be relied on to provide you with your regular mandolin fix, it is the ever wonderful Forty Elephant Gang, purveyors of an unbroken run of fine singles, even an including a Christmas one, for a good few years now, since coming to the attention of #TEAMw21. Their new single "Dark Shadows" is certainly not going to break that streak.

Opening to a combination of upfront mandolin and background electric guitar, tied to a suitably shuffling rhythm section. The guitar in particular plays huge rocking riffs just in a muted controlled manner. It is nearly thirty seconds in before the opening vocals appear, yet so absorbing is the mandolin playing that is passes in an instant.

"Stumble out of bed and turn the light on

I got four more days until I'm heading home"

The stark cover picture looks like some kind of institutional facility, and there's a raspy element in Andrew White's delivery that somehow gives a gritty realism to the events unfolding. There seems to be a moment of reflection prior to release.

"You can look me in the eye, but can you trust me?

You'll be better off alone, better off alone"

The narrative then pulls together events happening on either side of the wall, the normality of life continuing.

"Mother's making breakfast in the kitchen

Father's working hard out in the sun

Sister's laying listening to the music

Now that everything is gone, another day is done"

The chorus picks up the pace, and the volume intensifies, the hero line is a realistic self assessment of a flawed individual, while the final lines point to someone who sees their slate as having been wiped clean

"All my days and all my nights

I’ve seen more than you’ll ever know

Take my name and the fire that burns 

And I’ll let you go

Ain’t no hero inside of me

I’m just more than you’ll ever need

I got no dark shadows

Hanging over me"

The second verse sets a somewhat ominous scene, perhaps this forthcoming release is not universally being greeted with joy.

"Tell me do you tremble when you see him?

Cause I know I sense it right down to the bone

Now everything you said just seem to crumble

And I’ll be left alone

Wounded left alone"

After the second chorus comes an impeccable, delicately picked mandolin solo, before giving way to the guitar for its own individual contribution. They then combine to finish on an extended musical outro.

If anything it feels like the set up for a film, nothing is resolved, it is just left like a smouldering keg of gunpowder, waiting to explode. Musically there is nothing quite else quite like the Forty Elephant Gang, matching the sweetest of musical melodies to lyrics of urban realism - it all makes for a heady cocktail that we here at #TEAMw21 will gladly take a swig of!