Album Review

Dear Reader – Rivonia

• 9th Apr 2013

While hearts across the globe are warmed by the rather charming folk invasion that has swept the western world in recent years, it pleases me greatly to have thrust to my attention a seemingly easy listening experience that is teeming with turmoil.

Mumford and Sons may be steamrolling the way for more acts to follow, and certainly Dear Reader’s new album, Rivonia, could easily sit musically alongside the likes of Ben Howard and Laura Marling as beautiful, lulling vocals play out over the top of emotive pianos and additional voices join in a startling hymnal fashion, but to merely hear the album is to only scratch the surface, to get the most out of it, Rivonia must be really listened to.

Cheri MacNeil in her guise as Dear Reader, has given to the music world a deeply layered testament to storytelling, transporting us to the hostile days of apartheid South Africa in a way that is easy on the ear, yet is stark in lyrical content.

A scant regard for attention is kicked into touch by unrelenting lines such as ‘my brother, is dead in the gutter’, that slips by with very little in the way of emphasis in opening track Down Under, Mining, and the story told in Took Them Away of a dry cleaning van, carrying ‘one dog and a dozen strong men’ facilitating the arrest of members of an anti-apartheid organisation, the ANC led by Nelson Mandela, on what would otherwise be easily mistaken for an upbeat song, is only the start of a fascinating experience.

And with these two tracks laying much of the groundwork for the rest of the album that follows, it becomes essential listening, trying to separate the richly illustrated tales from the occasionally disconnected emotions of the music that takes the lead. The impact of Nelson Mandela, groundbreaking interracial elections, the struggle of black landowners and anti-apartheid sympathisers are hardly standard fare for songwriting, it is an undeniable strength that these subjects are never a distraction or a reason to turn off.

A classical, grandiose piano led album that flits between folk and west-end musical, Rivonia is both whimsical, uplifting and hard hitting at the same time, shaped by death and politics, yet it is never knowingly heavy handed in its delivery, surely making this the bravest and most challenging, easy listening album ever.

Venue: Rivonia
Support Band: City Slang