Richard Youngs - "Autumn Response"

Richard Youngs - Low Bay of Sky (Jagjaguwar 2007)

Richard Youngs – Autumn Response / Jagjaguwar

Continuing his tradition of unpredictability, the ever-enigmatic Richard Youngs once again turns his back on prior recorded material for a new album sure to confuse longtime fans. Granted if you are already a fan of the Glasgow-based artist and his knotty musical career, this confusion is half the appeal. Autumn Response strips away all of the abrasive characteristics that typically bend Youngs' sound into intriguing sonic directions. The drone, the feedback, the layer upon layer of electronic manipulation that has lined his recent Jagjaguwar output is all left on the cutting room floor. Instead you get Youngs, his acoustic guitar and delay, plain and simple. This is not your typical singer/songwriter record though (Youngs' reputation should have already clued you in on that), it's an insular, soothing folk record with a post-punk attitude. It's confrontational in its nakedness and calming in its honesty.

Since the early 90s, Youngs has been releasing album after self-produced album of home-recorded explorations. Though lacking a traceable evolution in his music, the multi-instrumentalist has continuously intrigued with his lo-fi stylistic excursions. One record will consist of crackling electronic caucophony while the very next will feature more of a blissful pulsing sound. An a cappella record here, a kazoo-based instrumental album there, and a blistering collaboration of psych-rock right around the corner. He simply makes music on instinct, and if something told him to make a folk record, who are we to argue?

Autumn Response hypnotizes in the best notion of the word. Centered wholly around Youngs' Robert Wyatt-like coo and pleasantly picked acoustic guitar, the album swirls in tight melodic circles, rippling outwards and then folding back on to itself just before it approaches any kind of atonality. Youngs is a sound manipulator though, so even a simple singer/songwriter album needs its quirk. Besides maybe touches of reverb, the only effect he utilizes is digital delay, but it's used extensively throughout the album. Nearly every one of his vocal lines is repeated at different time-delays with less of a concern for harmonics as much as emphasis. When lines like "There ain't no day that I reject / There ain't no edge that I accept" echo and warmly repeat overtop each other, they gently burrow into your consciousness. These aren't hammer-and-nail statements; they are literate, flowing prose that you need to screw in for long-lasting resonance.

Besides the ethereal seventeen minute closer, "Something Like Air", the majority of Autumn Response is made up of concise, melodious songs. The brief vocal delay "Low Bay of the Sky", which consists of maybe the most refined, accessible songwriting of Youngs' career, is off-set by the increasing delay of his methodical acoustic guitar picking. Though Youngs can easily keep you swooning lyrically, the warm, pulsing harmonies alone will have your eyes drooping in seconds. By contrast, the longer delay and multitrack gimmickry of "One Hundred Stranded Horses" gives the song more of a round-robin effect. His delivery verges on creepy and tension builds in the offset recurrences of the vocal lines. The song's anticipated climax teases for five full-minutes, but Youngs never gives way to any notion of anthemic chorus. It simply drones with melody... knotty, hypnotizing melody.

With a multitude of references to nature, seasons and wondering, Youngs sounds like he is not only responding to autumn, but the circular nature of life in general. Through his simple delay effect, he is able to further emphasize his reliance on the cyclical patterns of the seasons, the weeks, the days and emotions in general. Autumn Response is hypnotically pulsing, like a heartbeat, picking up its rhythm in more exciting circumstances and slowly beating during moments of calm. Use it as a catalyst for detaching yourself from the outside world by getting lost in its swirling introspection. Maybe you'll find out something about yourself in the process.