Scarrow – faint light, reflection, the shadow of a crow or hill, the faint light from a wall. Something gleaming intermittently or indistinctly.
ˈska(ˌ)rō. plural -s. Scots.
Salt House’s previous album, Riverwoods, was one of my absolute favorites of 2023, an utterly entracing, beautiful work that radiated nature in music.
A couple of years have passed and while Ewan MacPherson and Jenny Sturgeon remain, Lauren MacColl has exited the House and Anna Hughes has entered with her fiddle and vocals on Scarrow.
I didn’t know about Anna before but it turns out she’s an established musician from Newcastle and has done part of her studies at the folk music department of the Sibelius Academy here in Finland – yay! 😊
I don’t know if it’s this change in lineup or a deliberate decision to slightly adjust the Salt House sound, but in any case I can hear the difference. Riverwoods flowed like, well, a river in the woods, whereas Scarrow pulsates with a gentle and serene, almost hypnotic beat that’s often imperceptible but still there. Also, I think Scarrow is driven more by guitars than fiddle.
Riverwoods was mostly instrumental but Scarrow is very much a songs album, with all three contributing songs. The different timbres in Jenny’s and Anna’s voices create a whole new colour in the Salt House sound – I love to bits their solo vocals and harmonies. Ewan does a great job on his lead vocals as well, of course.
For me, Scarrow feels like a meditation, its deceptively soft sound hiding a very, very strong emotional core that comes through both in music and the lyrics, the latter filled with nature imagery, some with food for thought, too – see Anna’s brilliant Headed Our Way, for example, or Ewan’s Horizon that feels like a resistance song to this dark time we live right now.
One needs also mention the arrangements that are much more intricate than you initally think, with Andy Bell’s production that brings out every detail and musical point. Take out your best headphones for this one, and please do not use Scarrow as background music.
I can only say how happy I am with Scarrow. I loved Riverwoods so much, I was even a bit wary approaching this newcomer, but I am simply blown over by how good this is, absolutely on par with its predecessor – and how this new Salt House seems to have a beautiful identity of its own.
Once again, I wouldn’t want to mention any individual songs from an album this strong, but I have to admit Anna’s beautiful Take This Day, Jenny’s perfectly atmospheric Snow Walking and Ewan’s cathartic closer, Share The Light, are just… yeah, less said.
Go get Scarrow now in the format you prefer, or at least put it on autorepeat for a few days just on the streaming platform you use. And then listen, listen, listen.
FolkNotes 