Music Review: Ballboy - I Worked On The Ships

There must be something in the water in Scotland. Maybe it is the heritage of poets and heroes or the incredible panorama. Maybe it comes from centuries of having to defend your borders against invaders that makes you introspective and reflective. Whatever it is only a band from Scotland could produce this album, I Worked On The Ships, with any sense of genuine integrity. I had heard Aidan Moffat and Arab Strap, Malcolm Middleton and Mogwai before and I hung on every word. Ballboy do exactly that and from the moment I pressed play on this album I disappeared off into some deeply rewarding place in my mind that normally only exists at night.

I Worked on the Ships is a collection of songs that are akin to walking along a street peering down through dimly lit windows of basement flats, beyond the curtains and into other people’s lives. This is thought provoking poetry to music. It has a vivid film like quality of powerful imagery. Never depressing, it takes you on a journey beyond otherwise closed doors.

This is in fact Edinburgh based Ballboy’s fifth studio album since forming in 2002. They were one of the late John Peel’s favourite ‘finds’ and he asked them to sessions on his radio show no less than five times. The band is Gordon McIntyre (vocals and guitars), Nick Reynolds (bass), Gary Morgan (drums), and Alexa Morrison (keyboards. melodica and vocals). Pete Harvey provided the cello within the album. Gordon McIntyre also took care of production and mixing following the recording which took place in a small cottage near Galashiels in the Scottish Borders.

I Worked On The Ships opens with birdsong and the beautiful “The Guide to Shortwave Radio”. “Song for Kylie” continues with some visually moving images so well written that you feel as though you know this person and the situation as soon as the song starts. The image of the singer's cracked cassette tape lying discarded on a landfill site containing his songs for a lost love is just so powerful. To write lyrics in such a revealing and dramatically effective, intriguing way is a rare talent.

Article Author: Jeff Perkins

Jeff is a writer who lives in France. He writes CD/DVD box sets, music reviews and has had a book published about David Byron of Uriah Heep. He is 'busy' exploring the music of Europe with his wife Debbie and dog Dylan. It's Dylan that does the writing of course. …

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