William the Conqueror – Maverick Thinker
Chrysalis Records – 5 March 2021
Hitting the ground running, this third outing by William the Conqueror, Ruarri Joseph’s muscular band project, a southern rock three-piece guitar band, southern as in the southern states, is a slice of uplifting and unrelenting joy. Quite how a Scot, raised partly in New Zealand and now resident in Cornwall, can nail this style is masterful alchemy, not least if you can recall his earlier iteration as a sensitive singer songwriter.
It kicks off with ‘Move On’, a beauty of a song, ushered in by some tastefully picked twang, ahead of the band scuzzying in together, adding some grown-up grunge, the verses near narrated, a clarion call to dismissing any unsatisfactory past. Another cautionary tale comes in the form of an intelligent chug, ‘The Deep End’. If the structure is possibly generic, the country-rock flavours permeate into an altogether headier broth, the 60s keyboard a neat addition as the song builds. By now my smile is broad.
Needing a change of pace, the lyrically acerbic ‘Alive at Last’, is a slower canter which leaves you totally unprepared for the following ‘Jesus Died a Young Man’, a Tom Robinson-like swagger story through the possible legacy and effect of the subject matter. Needing a moment to engage, it is worth that moment, and is a triumphant surge into a direction the earlier songs leave you unprepared for.
And unprepared you are for, then, the acoustic near whimsy of ‘The Quiet Life’, back now more in a west coast vibe, aptly, the record having been made in L.A. The song builds, verse by verse, layer by layer, with the piano and the backing vocals perfect. Those vocals are presumably courtesy bassist, Naomi Holmes, whose bass is never intrusive, yet always melodic.
‘Wake Up’, at just over halfway, and track two, side two on the vinyl, in itself as good rationale for that format as any, does exactly as it says, a lively career around the walls, displaying well the drums of Harry Harding, Joseph’s longstanding percussion ‘octopus’, propelling it into the next track, with nary a pause. With some walking bass and a hint of muted feedback, ‘Fiction’ opens with a jaunty Hey, William, and is another self-referencing deprecation that is endearing me further to this project. Joseph’s voice manages to both hang onto melody, yet seem, at the same time, to be in conversation.
More pause for reflection with the slow blues of ‘Suddenly Scared’, shrouded in fuzzed guitar and, again, the vocal counterpoint of Holmes. Not for the first time I am hearing echoes of Robbie Krieger, of all people, in Joseph’s fretwork. Or maybe this is the production of Joseph Lorge, whose subtle inferences add the colour that makes this album the progression it is from the earlier self-produced discs.
‘Reasons’ has the return of the sleazy keyboards, and is perhaps the most straightforward rocker, Harding’s drums again a delight, those sounds together lifting it above the routine, preparing the scene well for closer and title track, ‘Maverick Thinker’. Like the last track on “side one”, this is gentler and more introspective, buoyed by a drifting accordion over acoustic guitar and the steady foundation of the rhythm section. As the piano enters, echoes of caledonian soul seep in, and the song, at six and a half minutes is stunning, a convincing and confident way to end a memorable and momentous record.
Ruarri Joseph has surpassed himself here. While it’s a great band effort, melodically and lyrically it displays the coming of age of this writer and performer. He deserves your attention.
Maverick Thinker is out now.