Joshua Burnell – Glass Knight (Album Review)

719

Joshua Burnell‘s music has long presented issues for those who wish to assign a genre to every song or tune they hear. He’s played along in the past, helpfully identifying some of his albums as “folk”. However, with each release of his original music, any such labelling becomes harder and harder to justify. With Glass Knight, his latest album, it seems the pigeonholers have finally given up. The Official Charts Company decided that Glass Knight is too Prog to be eligible for the Folk Chart and too Folk to be eligible for the Prog chart. Such an “endorsement” was more than enough to convince me I had to review it.

Glass Knight is undoubtedly a concept album and, for many, that could indelibly stamp it as “Prog”, but the folk world has had its share of concepts over the years, The Watersons’ Frost and Fire, Fairport Convention’s Babbacombe Lee, Steeleye Span’s Wintersmith come immediately to mind. Joshua’s mastery of keyboards, from his trademark Hammond organ through a range of synthesisers to a good old-fashioned piano, ensures that listening to the album will continually evoke connections to classic 70s prog rock. But that doesn’t make it a prog album. Like all worthwhile concepts, there are depths and complexities galore to be explored here, and they are largely to be found within Joshua’s lyrics as they introduce and expand on themes, some of which have been common in folk tales for centuries. I’d strongly recommend, initially, putting those lyrics on a back burner and approaching the album as a soundscape. Once you’re comfortable with its sound, exploring the lyrics will become a far more rewarding adventure.

Not surprisingly, Joshua’s keyboards are at the front for much of this soundscape. Still, five other band members and a guest 6-piece string section provide equally significant contributions, combining to produce a richly textured mix. Let’s start with the solid core of the band, Ed Simpson (drums) and Oliver Whitehouse (bass guitar); they play on most of the ten tracks while Joshua adds bass guitar on others and also turns his hand to programming electronic drums when needed. With keyboards prominent in the arrangements, it’s up to Nathan Greaves on electric guitar to provide much of the counterbalance, contributing some outstanding solos. The string section of Kathleen Ord and Elizabeth Heyes-Lundie (violins), Ellen Brookes and Rhiannon Fallows (violas), Greg Morton and Ele Leckie (cellos), is used on five of the tracks with Joshua’s arrangements being equally effective whether reinforcing a crescendo or providing a calming influence. Joshua takes lead vocal, but the vocal contributions of Frances Sladen are equally vital, with Nathan and Ed also providing vocal support.

The first track, When Planets Collide, sets the scene, opening with the sound of breaking glass. The fragility of glass is destined to be a recurrent theme throughout the album, with tales of its destruction used as allegories. The relevance of some of these tales can take a while to unearth, but not so with the album’s title track. It retells and repurposes an ancient folk tale from Saffron Walden in Essex. A basilisk, a cross between a dragon and a serpent, was terrorising the town as one look from the creature meant instant death. The surviving population was saved by a wandering knight who turned the tables on the basilisk by covering his armour with crystal glass; the creature died when it saw its own reflection. In Joshua’s retelling, though, that’s not the end of the story. When the townspeople are themselves reflected in the glass knight’s armour, they see all their imperfections and are appalled. What do they do? They smash the glass knight to pieces. Other tales similarly hold up mirrors highlighting the irrational behaviours that humans slip into so readily.

Any attempt to summarise the album in terms of its music inevitably brings us back to the prog/folk question. It doesn’t take many times listening through the whole album to recognise a structure that renders the question decidedly irrelevant. When Planets Collide opens the album in full-on keyboards, electric guitar and drums mode. But track 2, Out of these Worlds, is solo, with Joshua playing the piano, his primary instrument for the gentle accompaniment, joined later by his acoustic guitar. It’s straight-down-the-line singer/songwriter material. This is essentially Joshua’s trade, and he is very, very good at it. But at the same time, he’s the consummate showman, and there’s no better stage prop than a stack of keyboards. Almost without exception, this alternation of keyboard-driven songs with stripped-back acoustic numbers continues throughout the album. And whichever mode he’s in, the quality of the songwriting doesn’t vary.

The packaging of the Glass Knight CD is unusual. A uniform black cardboard fold with some pleasing artwork, including photos by Elly Lucas and, on the back, a list of track titles. It’s not until you remove the CD that you see there’s a QR code behind it. Scan this, and you’re taken to the Joshua Burnell web pages with descriptions and lyrics to all the songs and a complete list of credits. Neat, but unless you have a screen next to you, there’s no way to listen and read about the songs at the same time. A minor quibble but, hey, I’m old enough to remember liner notes when they really were liner notes.

Until last year, despite him being a Folk Radio Artist of the Month back in 2020, Joshua Burnell just wasn’t on my radar. All that changed in May 2022 when he and his 5-piece band played a couple of super impressive sets at Costa del Folk in Ibiza, followed, a few days later, by an appearance at my local, very small, arts centre. Intrigued as to how the full band would fit, I just had to go. And was rewarded with an intimate trio gig and an opportunity to chat briefly with Joshua. Move on to summer 2023, where the full band played many major festivals, showcasing the new Glass Knight material. I caught them at Wickham and Cropredy, and it was a delight to see how those festival audiences reacted to their sets with full-on enthusiasm. Now, with this CD, the Glass Knight songs can be enjoyed and appreciated in entirely different ways. Songs with layered instrumentation behind them reward repeated listening, revealing seemingly endless subtleties. Other songs have such simplicity yet nevertheless command your full attention. According to Joshua, “The album and the live show are very different beasts,” but take it from me: if you’ve enjoyed one, you’ll enjoy the other.

Joshua Burnell’s music has always thrived on the blurring of boundaries. However, with Glass Knight, his most daring and deeply rewarding album to date, he’s written music that simply refuses to recognise their existence. 

Pre-Order via Bandcamp: https://joshuaburnell.bandcamp.com/album/glass-knight

For upcoming tour dates, visit: https://www.joshuaburnell.co.uk/tour