It is increasingly rare, these days, for me to be completely surprised by a band. Generally, either I’ve heard another blog mention them, heard a couple of songs on their MySpace page or somehow, somewhere, heard someone mention them some other way – at least once. Not so with Morning Bride however. There I was, innocently browsing 17 Seconds one morning when Ed hit me with this album, completely out of the blue.

The title pretty much tells you much of what you need to know about the kind of music you’re going to hear, although for some unfathomable reason it also reminds me slightly of the Britpop scene of the early 90s. I have no idea why, just something in the style, and maybe something in the clarity of the voice. Unlike the scuzzy, rough round the edges sound favoured by most people writing indie-blues these days, this is a crystal clear waterfall of an album. Mark Pearson’s deep, understated vocal provides the ideal counterpoint to the clean as a whistle perfection of the really quite amazing voice of Amity Dunn.

The guitars are wonderfully restrained, but the true highlight of the instrumentation is the evocative cello of Alexa Richardson. Like the songs themselves, there is nothing dirge-like about it, and it manages to be emotive and yet maintain a perfect lightness of touch. That is perhaps the most striking aspect of the album. Despite the blues there is no scratch or growl to it – it is light, clear and direct and yet displays real power at times.

Don’t ask me how I never saw this one coming. It’s that good I really feel rather ambushed by the whole thing – another to add to the long list of small albums on small labels that have ended up vastly superior to their major label counterparts so far in 2007.

Morning Bride – Replica
Morning Bride – Time Delay

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