A. A. Williams
Solstice
Reigning Phoenix Music
From the first line of opener ‘Poison‘, there seems to be an up-close clear intimacy in the vocal delivery that juxtaposes its wide-screen instrumenting, especially in the expansive chorus. It’s these subtle touches that mark out AA Williams as being a class act. Tonality and spacial play lift her tracks into a far more interesting area than simply being gothic rock. There’s a clear sophistication to the production on display here that carries a lot of weight with it. This carries on into ‘Wolves’ with its beautiful vintage clean plucked passages ringing against the blankets of post rock reverberance. ‘Little By Little’ brings darkwave synths and precise enunciation to cut through the mix with purpose, evoking feelings of latter-day Massive Attack at their darkest.
A sublime middle eight pushes to a dramatic heavy climax and leaves an overwhelming feeling of depth and might. There’s some of AA Williams heaviest music here and the clever part is that the notion of, ‘heavy,’ is presented in numerous imaginative ways. ‘Hold It Together‘ beautifully sums up the crushing weight of neurological overwhelm to our ears and is highly relatable. ‘Outlines‘ brings a hugely welcome dark country edge with mournful lap steel guitar glistening in the blend bringing a melancholic Americana that wouldn’t be out of place in a David Lynch movie.
The tonal motif of being simultaneously, up close vocally and on keys whilst the drums and guitars sound like they’re playing in a cathedral is used a lot on this record but never feels overplayed or hackneyed. The back-to-back piano-led balladry of ‘I’ve Seen Enough’ and ‘The Veil’ provide some downtime and a break from crushing guitars and heavy drums. This provides a wonderful pick-up introduction to the driving ‘Just A Shadow‘ that gives the feeling that the album fell and pulled itself back up again. It’s a genius programming move and provides a really original dynamic. ‘It won’t rain forever’ Is surely a nod to a famous line from The Crow, and as such it also would fit right in on that film’s soundtrack.
In fact, all of the tracks on this album bring enough cinematic heft to make them primed for Tinseltown. At several points during this album, you do genuinely get Bond film vibes and we’re talking about the classic ones too. The Leslie effected guitars that welcome brooding parting song, ‘The Gentle Harm’ once again maximise the slow build, push and pull dynamics that AA Williams has perfected on this collection so well. It creeps and builds up to its Mogwai-esque crescendo (if Mogwai were a lot less sunny) and leaves you with piano arpeggios and vintage guitar tones and the tails of their reverb fading into the dark.
‘Solstice‘, is A.A Williams at her most, stately, brooding and sophisticated and it’s also conversely her most vulnerable, delicate and contrary opus to date and therein lies its excellence.
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Reviewed By George Miller