Pete Roe The Merry-Go-Round (Communion)
3/5
By: Kevin Molloy
Former backing musician for Laura Marling, and purveyor of perhaps the best packaging we've seen on any record for a long time, it's with anticipation that we put The Merry-Go-Round on to spin for the first time.
A shame then, that opening track 'Bellina' (also featured on the recent, rather wonderful Communion Records compilation) only barely plods along musically, whilst also being lyrically un-engaging, full of cliché and trope. Within the confines of the aforementioned compilation, the track felt like a solid folk offering (as indeed it is), but here serves as a disappointingly mid-tempo, lacklustre opening number.
Thankfully, 'Oh Susannah' is a much more promising second start to the EP. Muted rhythmic strokes on the guitar and understated finger-picked windings move the song forward with the kind of quiet purpose that draws you past the its surface and into its heart - a simple but touching narrative of a love lost through timidity.
The folk tradition can't help but feel slightly overburdened across the 4 tracks here, though. It's only in rare moments that Roe feels as if he's breaking through the veneer of respectable 'folkiness' and into something that will engage his audience beyond accolades of fine musicianship or of making a very pretty song. One major cause of those finer moments is the quasi-brogue of Roe's charming and honest stylings on vocals, and indeed the same on the six-string. Every fretboard scratch is left in the mix, along with the occasional missed note - there's a warmth to it all as it reaches your ears that few can attain.
Roe's most obvious talents certainly reside in his subtle craft on the guitar. Allow the notes to wash over you and the solitary strumming of the guitar on the EP's title track, coming up fourth and last, will transport you to a saddening journey of departure - there's a lyrical desolation to the guitar playing that Roe doesn't yet seem quite capable of matching in his lyrical or structural output.
So a solid offering, and certainly one to be watched, but our excitement would be further piqued perhaps by the idea of a collaborative songwriting venture in the follow-up, would that we could have our own selfish way.
Artists in this article: Pete Roe
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