New Music: Georgia Ruth - The Doldrums

I’m pretty sure that if you divided all the lyrics in the world of pop music up into two groups, one being sad songs about heartbreak and loss and the other being songs about feeling content and happy, the sad would be in the majority - artists being (or at least liking to think they are) tortured and tormented souls. There’s nothing better than a good song of anguish, hopelessness or grief to show just how deep you are as a person and to connect to the world. On the flip side, in the same way that it’s very rare for comedies to be nominated for an Oscar, singing about happiness is unlikely to get you taken seriously, especially by the critics.

However, on The Doldrums, the first song to be taken from Georgia Ruth’s forthcoming second album Fossil Scale, the follow up to the beautiful Week of Pines, (one of my favourite records of 2013), Georgia manages to take the idea of contentment and turns it into something of serious merit. The concept of the song came about from Georgia viewing a calm stretch of water, that despite its beauty possessed a stillness that felt ominous. She related it to her own life – the sometimes disconcerting placidity of being happy. The doldrums, from which the song takes its name is a sea-state of mild inactivity and stagnation caused by low pressure and this feature of non-movement is also reported to also feel unnerving.

There’s a sense of composure and beautiful romantic calm not only in Georgia’s ideas and thoughts but the music as well, and despite the absence of her previous instrument of choice, the harp, her voice remains as wonderfully hypnotic as ever. If The Doldrums is representative of the quality of her forthcoming second album (due in October) then that will surely be a collection to be treasured.

Georgia Ruth - The Doldrums

Albums of the Year 2013 #7 - Georgia Ruth - Week Of Pines

Earlier this year when the on-line conversation turned to who would be on this year’s Mercury prize list, every time we were asked, amongst our predictions we included a dark horse. The album was Week of Pines by Georgia Ruth. We were absolutely convinced the record would get a nomination as what is commonly known as ‘the token folk act’. This wasn’t based on a wave of outstanding critics reviews or record industry gossip, but quite simply because this evocatively beautiful album bewitched us the first time we heard it and several months on it was still plucking (quite literally) at our heart.

We use the word pluck very purposefully here, because Georgia Ruth (who first appeared on Breaking More Waves way back in May 2010) not only sings but plays the harp, and it’s her powerfully intricate playing of this instrument as much as her crystal clear voice that enchanted us.

Our certainty in a Mercury nomination was eventually proved incorrect, it seemed that this year there wasn’t much of a place for albums outside of the mainstream, but solace was found in the fact that Week of Pines received a nomination for the Welsh Music Prize. Then to our delight it won the thing. So someone agrees with us.

Week of Pines contains songs recorded in both English and Welsh language. The music varies from traditional folk such as welsh sea shanty Codi Angor to the lonely and haunting sounding Mapping to the motorik beat pop of the title track (one of the finest songs we’ve heard this year). Week of Pines is an album that is rich in songcraft, strong emotion and near perfect musicianship. Recorded and produced by David Wrench over six days in August 2012 in Snowdonia’s Bryn Derwen studios, it’s a record to which the word timeless really does apply; Week of Pines really could have been recorded in any decade from the 60’s to now. Thankfully it was released in 2013 and so deservedly sits at number 7 in our albums of the year list.

Georgia Ruth - Week Of Pines (Video)

Georgia Ruth - A Week of Pines (Video)

Whereas much of the modern world shares its life story through photographs uploaded onto social media websites, Georgia Ruth’s video for her new song Week of Pines visits the nearly forgotten slide show. Even although we’re watching the slides through the medium of You Tube there’s something richly personal and nostalgic about the experience. It focusses on shared family times and how through the ages, whatever format we view those memories on the same things remain important; travel, holidays, pets, cars, relatives and the like. The video will probably make you giggle as Georgia involves herself in the slides – we particularly like the donkey riding shot.

There’s a discussion to be had about how Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with their ‘like’ cultures and science of social peer pressure have changed the importance of photographs ( in the past ‘status’ photographs of your breakfast / lunch / evening meal or a drunk night out with friends would have arguably held a lot less value than they do now) but this is a music blog, so let’s not get too distracted on such arguments.

The song itself, which is the title track of her forthcoming album due May 20th is a bit of a beauty. There’s a soft relentless beat (matched by the pace of the slides), delicate harp and of course Georgia’s lilting to die for vocal. On this basis we can’t wait to hear the whole body of work which was recorded over six days last August at Snowdonia’s Bryn Derwen studios and features members of Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog amongst the musicians. 

Georgia Ruth - A Week Of Pines 

Georgia Ruth - Through Your Hands

One of the biggest criticisms of new music blogs is their hype-laden over-eagerness to post about particular acts, until the latest new thing in town comes along and they drop their previous loves like stones into water, never to be written about again. It’s the bloggers version of humping and dumping, quite possibly because it’s the only chance they get to do it; after all they’re too busy staring at their laptops to actually have real sex.

Yet as anyone who is passionate about music and writes about it will know, this criticism is part of the inevitable connection that you develop. Not with your laptop we should add (although that’s quite big) but with songs. Music is all about relationships. Sometimes it’s a lustful, drunk, energy charged one-night stand that’s never going to work out, but you’re going to do it anyway. The conversation around pop music can’t always be thoughtful and long lasting, particularly when its just about one or two songs. Sometimes the heart has to rule.

So today here’s an artist that we could have been easily criticised of getting into bed with once and then leaving amongst the crumpled sheets having nothing to do with her ever again. The Welsh singer and harpist Georgia Ruth featured as a New Wave way back in May 2010, but today we’re reviving those old connections as she has a new 10” vinyl EP titled In Luna due on the 20th February. Recorded in Snowdonia, we’re streaming Through Your Hands from the EP, which certainly isn’t deserving of a one off dirty romp under the (musical) sheets. This is a much more absorbing affair with Georgia’s exquisite vocal, the brush of drums and the delicate sound of harp creating a soothing intimate backdrop. The tune is of course about love. “You cannot love unless it’s slipping through your hands,” she sings. 

A sophisticated song with perfectly pitched emotional resonance, this time we promise we won’t rush off and forget about Georgia Ruth. 

Georgia Ruth - Through Your Hands

Georgia Ruth - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

The first time we heard Ocean by Georgia Ruth we had to stop what we were doing, sit down and listen over and over; we were utterly spellbound. The 21 year olds beguiling music hook-grabbed us immediately. And it’s not only Ocean that is completely intoxicating - another track, the magical Anna has a gorgeous soothing and melancholy quality - we could imagine it being used as the backdrop to the sad lonely moment in a movie.

The music of Georgia Ruth (full name Georgia Ruth Williams) is unlikely to appeal to those who are only concerned with the latest hip fashion or blog buzz band - her sound and instrumentation is rooted in tradition, her main tool besides her haunting soulful / folk voice being her harp. Yet the harp has undergone something of a renaissance in the last few years; Joanna Newsom has been instrumental in raising its profile and Florence and the Machine has brought its sound to a wider mainstream audience with its use on Lungs. Georgia Ruth is unlikely to be following Florence into the pop charts, but with her songs of love, loss and seaside living she could enchant those who get the possibility to hear her.

Georgia is from Aberystwth in Wales and sings both in English and Welsh. Having studied at Cambridge University she recently released her own self titled EP and will be enchanting new fans with her devastatingly beautiful songs at this years Greenman Festival.