On the trail of their ‘Magical Thinking’ EP, Liverpool-based The Room in the Wood have announced they will release their debut LP in late June via A Turntable Friend Records.. While this album will be released on vinyl as an 11-track offering, the CD and digital versions will include ‘Vermillion Sands’ as a bonus track.
This album was recorded with Steve Powell (Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band) at his Liverpool Arc studio and features contributions by drummers Colin George Lamont (Mark Lanegan, Dave Gahan) and Jake Woodward (Peter Perrett).
This is the first time band members Paul Cavanagh and Dave Jackson have worked together since their post-punk band The Room split back in 1985. Reunited under the moniker The Room in the Wood, this past year has seen them write over 30 new songs. Together with collaborator and ace drummer Colin George Lamont, they developed and honed these ideas down to the tracks they are now presenting.
This new material has been an exciting voyage of musical exploration in a new fruitful and prolific tandem. Jackson’s lyrical storytelling combines with Cavanagh’s exquisite guitar-stylings, making for a fine blend of post-punk pop, gritty blues-folk, and velvety ballads, variously influenced by Russian fairy tales, Francis Bacon, dead oceans, swimming pool bridges and unanswered prayers. This is eerie space-folk meets bluesy-glam-punk – an eclectic mix of styles, prioritising melodic storytelling and lots of strum and twang.
The video for the lead track ‘Magical Thinking’ was fully shot in Liverpool, underlining its occult underbelly and the magic possible through one’s thoughts and intentions.
Dave Jackson has been writting and recording since his teens as part of The Room, 051, Benny Profane, Dust, Dead Cowboys, as Dave Jackson & The Cathedral Mountaineers, and under his own name with former Shack guitarist John Head. He has recorded and released 10 albums with these various incarnations and notched up seven John Peelsessions with The Room and Benny Profane in the 80s, in addition to appearing on the Whistle Test, Janice Long and Saturday Live.
TRACK LIST
2. Magical Thinking
3. Raven Girl
4. False Friend
5. Grey Wolf Lullaby
6. Sensation
7. Sky Pool
8. Snowblind
9. Vermillion Sands
11. Nothing is Real
12. Snakeways
CREDITS
Paul Cavanagh – guitars & bass
Dave Jackson – vocals
Colin George Lamont – drums & percussion ( 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,12)
Jake Woodward – drums (7)
Andy Wilson – keyboards (1,6,8,10,12)
Alistair Ligertwood – cello (5)
Natalie James & Mary McCombs – backing vocals (1,7,8)
Steve Powell – engineer, co-producer
Recorded at Ark Recording Studios, 3 Birchall Street, Liverpool, L20 8PD (2017/18)
