Jacob & Drinkwater – This Old River
Polyphonic Life Records – 22 March 2019
Five years since the duo took to the stage together for an impromptu set at the Glastonbury festival, Tobias Ben Jacob and Lukas Drinkwater offer their debut full album. It follows a string of acclaimed releases: The Burning Low EP in 2015, Live at Hope Hall in 2016 and Tobias’s solo release A Polyphonic Life in 2017 (which also featured Drinkwater and material they perform together).
This is Jacob & Drinkwater to the core. Tobias on guitars and lead vocals, with Lukas displaying his multifarious talents on upright and electric bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, synth, backing vocals and percussion. And the results are well worth the wait.
The album features nine new songs by Tobias and one traditional, all arranged by the duo. It’s a dark and brooding album, but one bathed in heartbreak, light and hope. It sustains a consistent melancholic mood across the album, which is definitely a grower as I have discovered.
Now, I always make sure I spend time with an album before offering an opinion (artists tell me this can be quite a rare thing – not on Folk Radio UK I assure you!). But through multiple listens, I have found myself enjoying these sometimes mystical and enigmatic songs and arrangements more and more with each listen.
And I’m not finished with it. More importantly, the album is not finished with me. I fully intend to peer further into its shadowy corners, open up dusty draws to find hidden compartments, and see what more treasures and curiosities are hidden within. It’s a grower and a keeper.
This Old River is built on the strengths of the duo. Tobias’s brilliant songs float somewhere between contemporary and folk and his impassioned vocals deliver every nuance. I can’t think of a braver singer in the British folk scene right now, or further afield in fact.
Matching and elevating this is Lukas’s accompaniment, principally on double bass and backing vocals. An accomplished and in-demand performer in his own right, Lukas is totally committed to the material with every layer added to enhance the songs rather than display his (still evident) virtuosity.
Listing standout tracks is a tricky business. Because it feels like a whole. But Real Love is such a beautiful performance from start to finish. Forget the John Lennon/Lewis Beatles business, this is the real deal. Heartfelt and heartbreaking, with Tobias singing his heart out with a bowed double bass to die for. Whoever Tobias is singing about is a lucky soul indeed.
I could wax lyrical about each track, but the following is a blinder too. There’s a Shadow on the Sun was written after Tobias read first-hand accounts of life in war-torn Syria. And, by God, it cuts to the core. The double bass from Lukas is a heartbeat for a desolated nation, and their combined vocals a cry for compassion in the midsts of such destruction.
As a Fairport fan, I was delighted in their version of Nottamun Town. It unfolds like the version on What We Did On Our Holidays but goes deeper and darker with new lyrics and a creepier arrangement. To take on Sandy Denny and Iain Matthews’s vocals and, if not better them, then at least score a draw is an achievement in itself.
There is light and shade throughout the album, but the overall effect is mournful. So how wonderful to have such a stirring final track. It’s Still A Beautiful World is as uplifting (and not at all trite) as it sounds. A rallying cry of hope and light in these often dark, dark days.
This is an album I will return to, drawing solace from its bravery to face the realities of life on this planet in the second decade of the 21st century. But determined that things can be better. More beautiful. More compassionate. Astonishing.
Pre-Order the album here: https://jacobanddrinkwater.bandcamp.com/album/this-old-river
