Falling for the Mighty
Artist: Invisible Bride
Label:  Independent:  
Time: 10 Tracks / 33 mins
 
This was an independent disc given to me by a third party and I left it for a while, as the cover completely failed to excite me. When I did get round to playing it, I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the music inside.
 
This disc has strong character. Singer, guitarist, bassist and keys player Andrew Lucas has a rich voice remarkably like The Divine Comedy (with matching wit), and often uses a part-talking style (he even makes an ad-lib at the very end of the disc, “not the choir – I can’t sing!”) His backing varies – sometimes funky, sometimes with elements of boogie or a convincing brass section effect – but generally wears an eighties veneer. The harder you listen, the more that you can hear in the mix. He seems to have more production ideas for some tracks than can fit in their three minutes, and each track varies its sound, which all points to someone who knows his way around both songs and studios. 
 
But who is Falling for the Mighty? The MySpace has no blogs, no videos, no pictures – save the small out-of-date one inside the CD cover – and only 1 track, the decent “Ain’t Got Love”. Our only clues are on the Friends, who range intriguingly from Larry Norman and Al Perkins to Kevin Ayers and Uriah Heep’s Ken Hensley... as well as Jesus and Moses. With Producer Alan Branch as one friend, I was briefly tempted to view this project as someone in the business posing as an unknown. 
 
“Redeem Me” kicks the disc off with a ska rhythm and some funky guitar licks on top. “She Smiled,” which starts off sounding a little trite, soon uses its basic 4:4 rhythm in ways that make it feel much cleverer. The title track has a gorgeous shuffling undercurrent boosted by spots of bass synth. Closer “Come Round Monday Morning” actually has more of a chilled, bluesy Sunday morning feeling.
 
Lucas’s focus is love songs and worship material and although there are occasional jargon incidents (“All My Sins”), his lyrics tend to be fresh and natural, with some glint-in-the-eye and tongue-in-cheek moments like “My dirty clothes can be shining white when you gleam me” as a rhyme to “Redeem Me.”’ Similarly the ideas behind the songs can have intriguing twists, such as “All My Sins,” which asks “When all my sins are gone ... what shall we do to pass the time?” 
 
This should appeal well those who love The Icicle Works and other ‘eighties British pop with that quirky, indie attitude.
 
Derek Walker

(but if he really is an amateur it deserves more for accomplishment.)