Bond Street Bridge – Spring Summer Awesome Winter (Banished From The Universe/Monkey Records) CD REVIEW

“I’m not alone, I’ve got the internet on my phone”, sings Sam Prebble on ‘Rats’, a song from his second album under the name Bond Street Bridge. It’s typical of the dry, occasionally black humour that runs through his lyrics on this rather special record.
Prebble plays all the instruments here, and he could have easily made a fairly conventional folk singer-songwriter album, but has opted instead for a much more interesting hotch-potch of instrumental colours, all of which have their own connotations. For instance, there’s Spanish guitar, as well as folk-picking, but also violin, raw electronic beats and organ, and because all these parts are overdubbed, there’s something charming about their presentation that possibly comes from the creative spikes he went through in the process. Yes, folks, playing with yourself can be a good thing, even though your mother warned you might go blind.
Those who need comparisons to buoy themselves might appreciate names like Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and the Go-betweens. Not that Prebble sounds specifically like any one of these, or combination thereof… just that there’s a droll quality to his voice, together with rich, passionate, yet funny lyrics. His words also share a wonderful simplicity with the likes of Cohen. There’s something resonant about lines like “I’m going nowhere, and if you come too, we could stay there” (‘Birds’). And on ‘Now We Are Twenty-Eight’, he sings about being old enough to go to bed early and “read the books we should have read when we were 17”.
Occasionally, there’s a real Celtic folk feel coming through, and a hint of old sea shanties. But mostly, Spring Summer Awesome Winter is simply a modest gem from a genuine talent. GARY STEEL
Music = 4
Sound = 3.5