Roddy Woomble
The Impossible Song & Other Songs
Release Date: Mar 21, 2011
Genre(s): Folk, Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Alternative Country-Rock, Indie Folk
Record label: EMI
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Album Review: The Impossible Song & Other Songs by Roddy Woomble
Fairly Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 6/10
Inspired by a recent move to the Isle of Mull, Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble's second solo album, The Impossible Songs & Other Songs, continues his journey into cozy-pipe-and-slippers-middle age on 12 folk-pop tracks which further distance him from his angsty, indie rock beginnings. Indeed, despite the presence of bandmates Rod Jones and Gavin Fox, only the fuzzy electric guitars and thumping beats of the slightly grungy "Old Town" indicate this is the same man responsible for aggressive punk anthems like "When I Argue I See Shapes. " The tender "Make Something Out of What It's Worth" matches Woomble's conversational delivery with jazzy piano chords and gentle, brush-stroke rhythms; "Tangled Wire" is a soulful, fingerpicking acoustic ode to Scotland's natural beauty, and "New Frontier" is a Johnny Cash-esque slice of authentic, old-school country.
Based on rating 6/10
With Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons landing awards at a rate similar to which Charlie Sheen once (once, allegedly...) banged seven gram rocks, spare a thought for Roddy Woomble, erstwhile and maybe one day again frontman of Edinburgh scruffbag screamers Idlewild. His debut album My Secret Is My Silence, on which 'Woomble's fondness for folk music was made absolutely apparent' (as DiS said at the time) dropped in 2006. Landing in a music world that was embracing the fleeting fancy of new rave at the time, it couldn't have been much more incongruous if it had been released on wax cylinder only.
Opinion: Very Good
Idlewild singer’s cosy, contented second solo effort. Johnny Sharp 2011 The adjustment to pipe’n’slippers family life and a settled existence away from the city’s ripped backside can be a damaging one for a successful recording artist. No longer burning with the need to prove yourself or put the world to rights, no longer unhinged by a chaotic rock’n’roll lifestyle nor surrounded by ne’er-do-wells full of wild ideas, you find the music you produce has its edges smoothed off and a good part of its charm neutralised.