The Gentle Spring : Northernhay

Skep Wax are proud to present a second album by The Gentle Spring. Michael Hiscock, co-founder of legendary indiepop band The Field Mice, along with his new cohorts Émilie Guillaumot and Jérémie Orsel have created an album that combines wisdom, wistfulness, reflections on love and celebrations of community - all threaded through a set of songs whose melodic power and sheer catchiness recall The Field Mice at their best.

The music is more upbeat than on debut album Looking Back At The World. The shimmering acoustic guitars and sinuous bass are still present, but this time Michael’s and Émilie’s voices are accompanied by drums and percussion. With this new recipe, the songs sometimes remind you of early Microdisney, and sometimes The Pet Shop Boys, with deadpan, considered, unvarnished, but deeply emotive human vocals, and an insistent rhythm that drives on regardless.

The album title, Northernhay, is a clue to the inspirations that drive the songwriting. It is the name of a winding street that led from the Croydon suburbs where Michael lived as a kid, leading out to a wilderness, surprisingly close to the city, where foxes are seen, where the streetlights don’t penetrate - where you can get lost: one of those places where you first discover that the world is awesome, mysterious, deeply romantic and unknowable. The track We Let Our Feelings Show picks up directly on this reminiscence. It’s the celebration of the early days of forming a band, The Field Mice in Michael’s case, where he and a trusted friend first realised that you could capture some of the romance, mystery and awesomeness of the world in song. A blissful, exciting time, beautifully and sincerely rendered. Northernhay is very good at reminding us of the joys and of the freedoms that we start to take for granted - these songs are able to access the wonderment that we first experienced when we were young. The Second City is another song that achieves this. Hometown Croydon, sometimes dismissed as a mere suburb of London, an adjunct of the fashionable capital, is celebrated as the place where the magic began. A place where books and records could be found, creative friendships forged, and freedom discovered. It’s a sincere tribute to those uniform new towns and mundane streets where most of our creativity is born - the backwaters are where most great songs are written.

The Gentle Spring are based in Paris now, a long way from the suburbs. Two thirds French, one third English, there is a cosmopolitan sophistication to their music as well as an emotional directness. Lives have been lived, and the realities of love and of liberty have been experienced. Some of the songs on Northernhay counterpoint the idealism of youth with a very adult assessment of what actually happens when you grow up. Infectious pop song Down With Love is a witty, tongue-in-cheek dismissal of the oppression than can accompany emotional attachments. Could I Ever Feel The Same Again reflects on the pressure to be ‘in love’, to subscribe to the magazines that process it, to buy the products that will make it more likely. Émilie’s voice is important here: women and men are both trapped by a world that prioritises conventional romance. But it’s the women who bear the brunt of that pressure.

Cutting Me In Two, which would not be out of place blasting out at a late-night indie disco with its insistent bass drum and melodic bass guitar line, makes us realise that we may be adults now, but it’s still impossible to navigate a relationship without experiencing wrenching pain. Some things don’t change! Love hurts, and it always will.

So let’s dance to that, but then play the album again - and have another listen to opening track Tied To You. It’s another upbeat pop song with a big heart. But this track spills over with positive feelings of love.

The song is a metaphor for the whole album: Nothernhay is a box full of precious items that will move you, remind you of what you love, and rekindle those feelings of idealism and optimism you thought you’d forgotten. Love and community are the two most valuable things we have, Northernhay concludes. But neither of these precious commodities are easily won – and both can easily be lost.

UK DATES
23 Jan BRISTOL Cafe Kino
24 Jan BRIGHTON The Albert
27 Jan COVENTRY LTB Showrooms
28 Jan MANCHESTER Castle Hotel
29 Jan SHEFFIELD Sidney And Matilda
30 Jan LONDON The Waiting Room

THE GENTLE SPRING are: Michael Hiscock - Vocals, guitar, bass / Émilie Guillaumot - Vocals, keyboard / Jérémie Orsel - guitar