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Alasdair Roberts, "Spoils"
Sometimes the only way to move ahead is to fall behind the times. On his fifth solo album, Alasdair Roberts continues his run as one of the most eloquent advocates of traditional folk music. The eight originals on Spoils possess a ragged, arcane beauty that seem out of pace with the modern world, which makes them all the more striking.
Roberts is often lauded for his elaborate diction, and rightly so for he can stack archaic words in multisyllabic rhyme with a deceptive ease. He is able to keep cadence and melody in his voice despite the poetic gymnastics of his writing, barely pausing over ten dollar words like "bilious" and "saturnine." That would be enough to prove him as more than just a hack, but there is content along with beauty in his language.
The numerous obscure references in Roberts’ lyrics reveal an encyclopedic mind, able to grasp culture by its roots as well as by its branches. The breadth of his knowledge gives the songs a visionary aspect. In "The Flyting of Grief and Joy," Roberts recounts centuries of creation and destruction, singing "A tithe of skin, a toll of bone, a bloody libel burning/In Jericho and Babylon, eternally returning." And though Roberts has a historian’s eye for detail, his passion quells any suspicion that his lyrics are over-studied.
Regardless of the source material, Roberts’ music has the honesty of personal revelation, even if he is taking the persona of another. When he sings from the perspective of Ned Ludd, the effect feels artless, as if Ludd’s grudge against the industrial machine was Roberts’ own. The effect is only broken when Roberts rejects the vision, saying "that’s only what this guitar puts into my mouth," a blunt but effective reminder that singer and song are two different things. Yet if his artistic voice still comes off as out of date, it is because so much music today does not reach outside the narrow lives of its creators.
For all the fire and brimstone that he can summon against the modern world, Roberts can take on more roles than just the prophet standing in judgment. His voice suits more personal subjects just fine, as on the album’s closer "Under No Enchantment but My Own," a delicate song about a break-up. Roberts lingers over the verses like man recalling a bittersweet memory, at once savoring and regretting the moment. He takes the perspective of a man hard-bitten by experience, singing "All too familiar/A thing a road reversed reveals."A tone of genuine loss pervades the song, ending Spoils on a tone very different from Roberts’ persona as a visionary lawgiver.
So much poetry is contained in the lyrics that it is easy to neglect the music that accompanies it. In Spoils, Roberts sticks to loose folk-rock arrangements similar to genre touchstones like Crazy Horse or the Incredible String Band. His songs are punctuated with resounding cymbal crashes and long dramatic guitar electric guitar chords. In the past, some of Roberts’ songs have suffered from flat arrangements, but on Spoils he wisely relegates ennui to being a subject matter rather than a compositional principal. Roberts is at his best when his backing band pushes him forwards, as they do in "Ye Muses Assist," where acoustic guitar and flute bob up and down together in an infectious riff and are broken up by thick snarls of feedback.
Evident as his talents are, Roberts seems in danger of sliding into a respectable but nonetheless unwarranted obscurity. His music elicits more of a grudging respect than genuine enthusiasm.The popular fetish for constant innovation harms the appreciation for traditional folk music, regardless of how radical and deconstructed it is.Roberts himself has stated in interviews that he sometimes feels "trapped" in his attachment to the old songs, but the anachronistic character of his music is one of its most distinguishing characteristics. Perhaps Roberts is mistaking a position of strength for one of confinement.While the majority confines their interest to the commonplace, he at least is one that is looking outwards for inspiration. If that is behind the times today, chances are that Roberts will fare better tomorrow.
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