N57 Test Driving: Dry The River – Shallow Bed

Don’t take the name Shallow Bed literally; this album is anything but shallow. Collectively, it catalogues most of what Dry the River have ever written (and liked, obviously). What’s remarkable is that a band with a violinist, acoustic guitars, and three-part harmonies were bred from a hardcore musical background, consequently bringing folk and rock together. And it’s definitely given them a different kind of edge. Inevitably this alternative heritage has had a unique effect on their sound; take ‘No Rest’, for example, which begins with nothing but frontman Peter Liddle’s quivering, impassioned vocals, and builds to a dramatic lament of a past love. ‘Shaker Hymns’ on the other hand, is delicately performed with the fragility of an acoustic guitar, whilst ‘Weights and Measures’ melodically shifts in heart-wrenching crescendos. Interesting references to bibles, rosary beads, and the unfamiliar Phrygian lion adds a poetic flow to the entire album, filling it with sentiments so tender that “Shallow Bed” can be nothing less than beautiful.

-Charlie Clarkson