White Sails: Memory & Desire on Top 10 of 2014 / Review

Nick Leese of Heyday Mail Order in London, England has included “Memory & Desire” on his Top 10 of 2014 list!

Below is a writing/review of the album he wrote on his music blog a couple of months ago. Here’s a link to his blog.

Cheers Nick!

White Sails

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27.11.14

A CDR of the new White Sails album ‘Memory & Desire’ landed here a couple of weeks back. It’s expected for release pretty soon, so watch this space!

This is one beautiful piece of work!

It did take me a few listens to get into, mainly because White Sails are a very subtle listening experience. Nothing immediate hits you when you first hear something new by them. Everything appears understated. Listen more though and a whole other world slowly begins to open up!

Firstly, Ville Vilpponen’s guitar playing on ‘Memory & Desire’ is not only economical, but wonderfully fluid, weaving in and out of Leigh Gregory’s vocals and gentle drumming by brother Jaakko. After a few spins I was following the guitar lines totally track after track. This is the type of guitar playing I admire most. Inventive and meaningful without ever overdoing it. There’s also some nifty keyboard fills too, here and there, which I’m sure Ville is responsible for as well. A master craftsman.

Now back to Leigh Gregory’s vocals, not much louder than his speaking voice, but all the time drawing the listener in. Nowhere in the lyrics is there anger or bitterness, there’s always hope and love, without sounding trite. It might be a little ‘hippie’ to say all this, but it’s quite refreshing to hear actually. ‘Dream Of Flying’, ‘Come In From The Storm’, ‘And You And I’ – all wonderfully lyrical and uplifting!

Favourite track? ‘Cities Of The Plain’ – this wouldn’t sound out of place on ‘Born Sandy Devotional’ by The Triffids. Yes, it’s that good!

Oh, there’s also a beautiful instrumental to kick back too as well – ‘Lifelines’ . Listen and weep!

Thanks again guys, it’s been a long month for one reason or another, grey skies, rain, blah, blah blah…but ‘Memory & Desire’ has made it all bearable.

If you’re also in the mood for something to ‘listen’ to, you can’t go wrong with ‘Memory & Desire’.