Karine Polwart – Karine Polwart’s Scottish Songbook (Hegri Music)

The covers album can be a tricky thing to get right. There are occasions where some artists seem to be so reliant on covers they can almost forget what made them so special when they started out with their own material (hello UB40 and Rod Stewart). Some are themed (I love the fact that k.d.lang, a non-smoker, did a whole album of songs about smoking called Drag) and some can be an interesting insight into how the act got where they are (Bowie’s Pin-Ups and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Through The Looking Glass are excellent examples of this). Karine Polwart latest album sees her take eleven songs from the last fifty years of Scottish popular music, and the result is absolutely fantastic.

As Ms. Polwart explains in her own notes to the album (would that more musicians were articulate enough to do this), whilst she is known as a singer of traditional songs, she did grow up as a child to a soundtrack of Scottish pop. Last year saw an excellent exhibition of Scottish pop at the Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland, and this acted as the catalyst to a one-off gig, and now this album, eleven choices from the last fifty years of Scottish pop.

The album kicks off with her interpretation of The Waterboys’ ‘The Whole Of The Moon.’ Mike Scott. Right away, this version strips it down to the song. So, it remains anthemic, but most crucially, Roddy Lorimer’s trumpet solo has gone. And it works. It asks: what is the essence of the song about, not specifically a recording of a song?

The album runs a whole heap of emotions in this listener alone, so God only knows what it was like making it. Her cover of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ maintains the beauty of the original, and is relentlessly stirring and optimistic. Yet to read the sleevenotes (well, more like beautiful stories) is to wipe away tears as she pays tribute to Frabbits’ lead singer, Scott Hutcheson, who sadly took his own life last year.

Oh yes, the writing. I suppose to describe this as a multimedia project would sound pretentious and curiously dated. But what she writes matters just as much as what she says. Another selection from the 1980s that is here is Big Country’s ‘Chance.’ If you only remember them for bagpipe-guitars and bombast, you missed this bittersweet beautiful ballad.

Don’t you know the words?

“He came like a hero from the factory floor
With the sun and moon as gifts
But the only son you ever saw
Were the two he left you with.”

As heartfelt and agonising as Abba’s ‘The Winner Takes It All,’ Karine writes about her own experiences at school, the girls who became pregnant before they were sixteen, those who grew up dealing with abuse. The song is poignant as it ever was, a million miles away from ‘One Great Thing’ or ‘In A Big Country.’ Moving in a different way is the sample of her Grandfather’s voice singing at the start of her version of ‘Since Yesterday,’ Strawberry Switchblade’s mid-80s smash.

Across its eleven tracks it really is a perfect sample of music, like a really concise side of a C-90 9fittingly, there’s one on the album cover). It stretches from the folky likes of John Martyn (‘Don’t Want To Know’) and the underrated gem that is Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Whatever’s Written In Your Heart.’ It takes in the aforementioned 80’s acts, to the more recent likes of Biffy Clyro and Chvrches, and of course Deacon Blue’s ‘Dignity.’ It takes precious little notice of what is hip, rather what is heritage. It closes with a wonderful cover of Ivor Cutler’s ‘Women Of The World’ which serves as both a warning and a celebration.

So a triumph, then. Not only is the album brilliant in its own right, but beautifully put together as a package, and presented in word as well as art, but it offers scope for discussion about the concept of song as well. Don’t question choices or offer suggestions, this is damn near perfect in its own existence. Respect is due.

****1/2

Karine Polwart’s Scottish Songbook is out now on Hegri Music.

Karine Polwart will release her new album Karine Polwart’s Scottish Songbook on August 2. The album features eleven songs which were written by Scottish artists performed in her own style.

While she’s generally considered to work in a folk idiom, these songs generally come from the rock scene over the last fifty years (though Gerry Rafferty and John Martyn would be considered to have had a connection with the folk scene). The album tracklisting is as follows:

The Whole Of The Moon (originally performed by The Waterboys)

From Rags To Riches (The Blue Nile)

Dignity (Deacon Blue)

Since Yesterday (Strawberry Switchblade)

Swim Until You Can’t See Land (Frightened Rabbit)

Chance (Big Country)

The Mother We Share (Chvrches)

Don’t Want To Know (John Martyn)

Whatever’s Written In Your Heart (Gerry Rafferty)

Machines (Biffy Clyro)

Women Of The World (Ivor Cutler)

The album was recorded at Chem 19, the studio owned and operated by the Delgados, where numerous Scottish artists (and firm favourites of 17 Seconds), including the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai and Arab Strap have recorded.

There will also be live dates around November:

14 November ABERDEEN Music Hall
15 November PERTH Concert Hall
16 November EDINBURGH Usher Hall
27 November LONDON Barbican

Some of the tracks are available to listen to already:

‘Women Of The World’ by Ivor Cutler has been covered by other artists including YACHT and Jim O’ Rourke.

‘Dignity’ by Deacon Blue is one of those songs that has become a classic, despite only being a small hit at the time. The album artwork references their debut, Raintown.

The album opens with Karine’s version of the Waterboys ‘The Whole Of The Moon.’ Radically different from theirs (no trumpets here), the prettiness of the essence of the song comes through.

Finally, Big Country’s heartbreaking ‘Chance’ is handled gently, dealing with concerns that are still very vivid in the minds of many people in this part of the world.