Lines, parts one, two & three
The Unthanks
Keywords
Reviews (4)
AllMusic
2019
By
By
Timothy Monger
2019
"Much like his former Fence Collective counterpart Kenny Anderson (King Creosote) and others who came up through Fife's close-knit musical community, Yorkston's devotion to regionalism and his own self-mythology remains a central aspect of his presentation, and with this album, he offers another mesmerizing glimpse into that strange but increasingly familiar world".
The guardian
d. 8. Mar. 2019
By
By
Jude Rogers
d. 8. Mar. 2019
"Folk album of the month" - "Stirring together folk, Indian raga and jazz into deliciously exploratory but strangely familiar music, [his brilliant Yorkston/Thorne/Khan albums of recent years] revealed Yorkston as a musician who never forsakes intimacy for inventiveness. Yorkston's first solo record in five years was made at his ramshackle loft studio in Cellardyke, East Fife. Fisherman's nets were once mended there; now traditional instruments fill it, such as the concertina, the Swedish nyckelharpa, and the instrument of the album's title. Together with Tom Arthurs's trumpet (...), they afford a delicate authority to songs which explore big subjects in breathlessly whispered ways: ageing, parenthood, responsibility, nationality, fraying love, regret, and death. This is music to get lost in, for headphones, and for your head".
Record collector
490 (2019 March)
By
By
Paul McGuinness
490 (2019 March)
"The Route To The Harmonium feels like a return to the warmth of some of his earlier outings - not that he's exactly satisfied - with a more mature Yorkston having crafted perhaps the album of his career".
fRoots
2019 Summer
By
By
Steve Hunt
2019 Summer
"Long established as the Kingdom of Fife's premier wry romanticist, James Yorkston makes a welcome return to solo action following his two (brilliant and underrated) Yorkston Thorne Khan collaborations ... This is Yorkston amongst his old and treasured acoustic instruments, creating a work of astonishing intimacy. When he whistles, unexprectedly, in "Oh Me, Oh My", you'll find yourself believing he's sitting next to you ... "The Blue Of The Thistle" finds him caressing the strings of a nylon-string guitar and crooning like a Caledonian Leonard Cohen - who is subsequently quoted, along with Gnarls Barkley, in the dizzying cut-up "My Mouth Ain't No Bible". A published novelist, Yorkston's gift for storytelling is demonstrated to breathtaking effect on "The Irish Wars of Independence", while "Like Bees to Foxglove" shows he's never lost the knack of crafting a beguiling melody. This is a terrific record from the most literate and listenable of songwriters".