Iain Archer - To the Pine Roots

INDIE FOLK

Dripping in the ethereal, To the Pine Roots is the latest folky affair from Bangor’s Iain Archer. Formerly a ‘secondary lyricist’ with Snow Patrol (an odd thing to brag, perhaps), Archer follows up 2006’s Magnetic North with songs recorded in a cottage in the Rhine Valley. You wonder why he holed himself up in such a bunker, considering that this collection simply reeks of his Celtic roots.

From the hauntingly glorious ‘Songbird’ and ‘Frozen Lake’ to the desperately plodding ‘Black Mountain Quarry’ and ‘The Nightwatchman, the mix is almost, but not quite right.

(Black Records)