Morton Valence
Me and Home James
Bastard Recordings
Morton Valence is a band that you need to experience.鈥俉ithout any false pretence they defy categorisation, and as such create astounding diversity in one album. Me and Home James is the follow-up album to 2009鈥檚 Bob and Veronica Ride Again. Both albums share the band鈥檚 appetite for story-telling. For them, it鈥檚 not about composing the same old songs, but using the music as a conduit for a larger narrative.
Me and Home James is different from their debut, but carries the tradition of story-telling. Described as 鈥渦rban country鈥, there are undertones of Patsy Cline and George Jones 鈥 that pre-rock 1950s sound; however, aligning this album with country is not an entirely true representation.
Me & Home James (the song) is a distant lullaby, sweet and gentle; the following track At Red Rock Mountain bursts, infuses and pops. The underlying narrative is an early morning journey through London in an unlicensed minicab and each song represents the lives of the city鈥檚 inhabitants, and the weird, tormented but at times wonderful things you find at that time of day. Me and Home James is a success.
Shirley Stevenson