Karl Culley
Stories Save Our Lives
Loose Wire Records
19 May 2023
Following on from Karl Culley’s comeback EP, Redshift, released in 2022, a full-length album was promised, and Stories Save Our Lives is the result. This is album number six from Culley, who lives in Krakow, Poland but originally hails from Yorkshire.
What makes this album all the more poignant is the fact that not only is it his first full album since the album ‘Last!’ which was meant to be his final album, but it also comes after a difficult breakup, on top of which he was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Stories can inspire and help us, and the title of this album fits the deeply reflective nature of the songs.
Culley’s fingerpicking has always been very striking, and it is no less here, but his voice sounds more mature, and its rich timbre is often overlooked in favour of his picking skills. Moreover, the lyrical ideas of each song, themes of seduction, struggles with self-medication, lust, and redemption, are more profound. ‘Real Champagne’ is a lush fingerpicked song, with the theme of a situation often appearing much more real and appealing than it is – ‘You are never real champagne’. Focussing on an individual, ‘Katarzyna’, a popular Polish name, is a delicate tribute paid towards the song’s subject and a very tender moment on the album.
Touching on suffering and self-medication, ‘Beast’ takes its title from a Samuel Johnson quote – ‘He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man’. ‘The Night of the Hunter’ opens to Culley’s rapid fingerpicking, the title taken from the haunting and sinister cult movie, a melancholic song that explores the idea of darkness and that things are not always as they seem.
‘Kindred’, a song about finding someone with the same values, is one of three songs featuring the London-based songwriter and singer Lettie, who compliments Culley’s vocals. She also sings on ‘Where You Lie’ and the unsettling yet impressive opening track ‘Pursued by Hounds’.
The album closes with a pleasant fingerpicking-based song, titled ‘Contact Improvisation’. It starts with the line, ‘You give me a new centre of gravity’, a hopeful finale with a suggestion of newfound peace and optimism.