Blind Faith

Essay No. 10 in the series The Music of Black (Colin Vearncombe)

by Andrew Keeling

To download a PDF version click here.

Contents
Introduction
– Events 2015
– Music 2015
Blind Faith – the album
– Personnel
– Lyrics
– Harmony
– Tempi
– Design/Artwork
Individual Songs
– The Love Show
– Don’t Call Me Honey
– Good Liar
– Sleep Together
– Womanly Panther
– Who Are You
– Sunflower
– Not The Man
– Ashes of Angels
– Stone Soup
– When It’s Over
– Beautiful
– Parade
Coda
Postscript
Appendix

Introduction

Colin Vearncombe’s eleventh studio album – the seventh made under the Black moniker – was released on April 13th, 2015 and was to be his final full-length offering. It comprises thirteen songs co-written by Vearncombe and Calum MacColl.

Blind Faith was funded by a Pledge Music campaign reaching 240% of the original target figure. Vearncombe said at the time, ‘Blind Faith made this record: belief that we could raise enough from the fans to seriously help the project along and at a quicker pace than we’ve been able to in the past few releases; belief that maybe I needed to step back a little and allow some unexpected things to surface that otherwise wouldn’t… First, I wanted to break my mould, so I approached Calum MacColl. We’ve known each other for some time and I had noticed that he always improves a song I bring him. Secondly, I had been missing using a full team while making the record. Producer Calum Malcolm was hired to steer the ship. Now we only need faith in him steering us to the place we need to go.’ ^[1]Nero Schwarz

Whereas there had been an absence of reviews for the previous release, Water On Stone, here reviews were plentiful and positive:

‘Colin Vearncombe will be preserved in pop aspic as the writer of 1987’s melancholy worldwide hit Wonderful Life…but he hasn’t stopped working despite not having breached the Top 40 for twenty-seven years. Blind Faith…is a marvellous little thing – a less temperamental less self-regarding cousin to Scott Walker’s first four solo records. Like them, it’s steeped in European balladry, and filled with delicious arrangements…’. ^[2]The Guardian, 25.06.15

‘Black has continued to incite ears and passions since (Wonderful Life)…Now, though, it has a rival in the shape of the magnetic seduction of Blind Faith…co-written with long-time friend and musical partner Calum Malcolm (The Blue Nile/Prefab Sprout) producing. Vearncombe brings all his emotional description skills to bear from the opening second of…The Love Show. A sombre yet joyful acoustic melody hits the ears…swiftly courted by a kiss of strings and…the distinctive voice of Vearncombe.’ ^[3]The Ringmaster Review, 10.6.15

‘Blind Faith is an exercise in the restraining guitar work of long-term associate and album co-writer, Calum MacColl, forming wonderful structures (and) sonic bubbles that often do little more than frame the songs allowing atmosphere and anticipation to undertake the lions share of the works…If awards were handed out for tranquility, this would get the Nobel Peaceful Prize.’ ^[4]Dancing About Architecture, 4.05.15

Events 2015

2015 was an eventful year, with the rise of ISIS – The Islamic State – bringing about Islamic radicalisation and resulting in the murder of journalists in the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, with over a hundred others dead due to terrorism. This would escalate over the next two years with the Manchester Arena suicide attack at an Ariane Grande concert killing seventeen people and injuring over one thousand.

A massive refugee crisis in Syria saw over four million people displaced following Russia’s intervention to stem the flow of Islamic terrorism, the main thrust being to depose Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. There were further refugee crossings by dinghies to the Greek islands. This would exacerbate the breakdown of international borders. Earlier in the year Egypt conducted airstrikes again Islamic terrorists in Libya, with further atrocities in Kenya. 

The United Nations adopted a drive towards Sustainable Development Goals, with two hundred countries signing an agreement to keep rising temperatures down to below 2 degrees Celsius, spurred on by US President Barack Obama.

In the UK General Election the Conservatives gained a majority government with David Cameron winning a second term as Prime Minister. Cuba and the US were to end fifty-for years of hostilities and there was further conflict between Russia and Turkey after a Russian plane was shot down by a Turkish jet. 2015 also saw major earthquakes in Chile, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan.

Music 2015

There was an upturn in the Global Music Industry due to the streaming revolution. Revenues increased by over 3% simultaneously seeing the decline of solid product. The industry sought fairer revenues for artists in the light of free streaming with Spotify and Apple leading with over sixty-eight million fee paying subscribers. Sony Music would also declare, ‘We are advocating music be as widespread as possible.’ In a sense, this was part of the push towards a Globalist ethos in all walks of international life.

Rap and its many forms, along with dance music, dominated mass pop culture while guitar-oriented bands maintained their hold on the indie scene. In the former the Mark Ronson song Uptown Funk was the year’s sensation, performed by Bruno Mars with Ed Sheeran and Justin Beiber not far behind. Kanye West lit-up the Glastonbury Festival and Adele became the biggest selling artist with over three million digital singles of her song, Hello. 

Other key artists dominating the charts were Rihanna, Mumford and Sons, Moses Sumney, Def Loaf, Lana Del Rey, Sufjan Stevens, Bjork, Chance the Rapper, Destroyer, Dr. Dre, Grimes, Drake, Alessia Cara, Julia Holter, Jamie XX and Courtney Barnett. 

The indie scene saw releases by The Icarus Line, Julien Baker, The Charlatans, Wolf Alice, Blur, Deerhunter, Wilco, Low, Foals, Soak, The Dears, My Morning Jacket, Pavement, Traams, The Cribs, The Dodos, The Maccabees, Slug, Idlewild, British Sea Power, The Libertines, The Subways, The Vaccines and Palma Violets. 

Blind Faith – the album

This being Colin Vearncombe’s final studio album, the essay will limit itself to a discussion of the music concluding with a summary of his musical output. 

By 2015, Vearncombe had been writing and releasing music for thirty-three years. He was 53 and had, by that time, become an experienced artist enduring the usual career peaks and troughs. Uninterested in the novelties of mass pop music, Vearncombe had chosen to forge his own career path; less a career and more of a ‘calling’. By the beginning of his third period of musical output with Between Two Churches, his musical thinking had deepened bringing him to himself. 

As artists age they become less concerned about acceptance and less aware of contemporary trends, relying more on the inner creative daimon. An artist is likely to cast an eye back to initial influences by transforming them into an idiomatic voice. As one composer was heard to say, ‘We only re-compose what we have previously heard.’ This applies to Colin Vearncombe, as one considers his primary influences such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Scott Walker, and Tom Waits transformed into his own unique voice.  Nor does an artist work in a creative vacuum. This is certainly true of popular musicians whose collaboration with other musicians is the sine qua non of the creative process; a place where the push and pull of white-hot ideas issue back and forth as a kind of creative magma. 

‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ is another aphorism worth considering: one man’s or woman’s (creative) meat is another’s poison. Even more so when one makes music, poetry, art or writing based on one’s individual personal typology. In formative years an extrovert is likely to turn to outer interests through mass culture as a way to meet the world head-on. In contrast, an introvert may be more concerned with the inner world and, in turn, oriented to alternative cultural forms. The means by which to objectify this might be through the lens of C.G. Jung’s ‘psychological’ and ‘visionary’ modes, or through G.I. Gurdjieff’s ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ modes. In both cases, the former categories (‘psychological’ and ‘subjective’) assert that what is produced comes from the personal unconscious, with the latter category (‘visionary’ and ‘objective’) from the deep collective unconscious felt as arriving from somewhere else, for example, sometimes through dreams, sometimes through visionary experience. In short, an extrovert’s experience is shaped by interaction with the outer world, an introvert’s through the inner world.

It strikes this writer that Colin Vearncombe was creating music of an introverted type even though as a younger man, during his first period of musical output – the Wonderful Life and Comedy years – he attempted to work from an extroverted position by accommodating himself to success. This quickly faded as his true individual type took the reins guiding him towards indie styles and solo singer-songwriting craft. The dark-light, melancholic style pervading much of his work at all levels is possibly due to this. It is here that the paradoxical nature of the opposites is felt, alienating those more oriented towards the outer. As Calum MacColl observes, ‘It’s the bitter-sweet melancholy. It’s the darkness. There’s a darkness and a twist in what he does.’ ^[5]Water On Stone – Mini- Documentary. Alchemy Electronic Arts, 2010. One also has to bear in mind that the album, in terms of the writing, is a Vearncombe/MacColl collaboration, the process, of which, Calum MacColl clarifies in the Appendix of this essay. 

Blind Faith comprises thirteen songs:

Diagram 1

1. The Love Show
2. Don’t Call Me Honey
3. Good Liar
4. Sleep Together
5. Womanly Panther
6. Who Are You
7. Sunflower
8. Not The Man
9. Ashes Of Angels
10. Stone Soup
11. When It’s Over
12. Beautiful
13. Parade

Personnel

The personnel include previous musicians and collaborators but, here, there is a larger string ensemble:

Diagram 2

Colin Vearncombe: vocals, guitar, piano and dobro; Calum MacColl: guitars, flat thing, additional programming, backing vocals; Liam Bradley: drums and percussion; Mickey Rowe: keyboards; Simon Edwards: bass. 

Violins: Laura Comini, Robert McFall and Sijie Chen; Violas: Mark Braithwaite, Rachel Smith and Stephen A. King; Cellos: Donald Dillon, Su-a-Lee.

Recorded and produced by Calum Malcolm

Recorded at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth; Voom! Studio, New Malden; Studio Morricone, Italy

Strings recorded at Edinburgh Napier University Music Department

All songs written by Calum MacColl and Colin Vearncombe

Management – Kerry Harvey-Piper at Red Grape Ltd

Cover photos – Gisli Snaer

Booklet photos – Andy Patterson and Kerry Harvey-Piper

Artwork concept – Colin Vearncombe

Design and layout – Kitty MacColl at Barking Cat

Lyrics

The lyrics are centered on poignant memories of love and its pitfalls, with the final Parade coming as a final Requiem:

Diagram 3

The Love Show	love
Don’t Call Me Honey	physical love
Good Liar	deception and love
Sleep Together	lovers’ memories
Womanly Panther	physical love
Who Are You	questioning
Sunflower	metaphor and longing (after William Blake’s poem)
Not The Man	denial
Ashes Of Angels	realisation
Stone Soup	change
When It’s Over	endings
Beautiful	memories of summer love
Parade	leaving

Harmony

As with Between Two Churches some of the songs have the guitars tuned down a semitone. The sounding keys/modes of each song will be referenced with guitar chordal positions occasionally mentioned:

Diagram 4

The Love Show	C# major (guitars tuned down a semitone [6=D# 5=G# 4=C# 3=F# 2=A# 1=D#])
Don’t Call Me Honey	A minor (no 3rd)/A major (standard guitar tuning)
Good Liar	F# major (guitars tuned down a semitone)
Sleep Together	F# major (guitars tuned down a semitone)
Womanly Panther	E minor (standard tuning)
Who Are You	C major (normal tuning)
Sunflower	G major/E minor (at end)
Not The Man	B major (guitars tuned down a semitone)
Ashes Of Angels	B minor (Capo 3 on detuned guitar)
Stone Soup	G major (standard tuning)
When It’s Over	C major (standard tuning)
Beautiful	C minor (Capo 4 on detuned guitar)
Parade	G major/E minor

Harmonically speaking, Blind Faith is a significant step forward compared to Vearncombe’s previous output. Eight of the thirteen songs cast are in major modes with five in the minor. In terms of long-term structural harmony, the album demonstrates a tritone descent (BF Ex. 1) : from song 1 (The Love Show) to song 13 (Parade). Here, the tritone is spelt as a Diminished 4^th rather than a Diminished 5^th, another way of saying the same thing. Between songs 3 and 6 there is a further tritone descent (F#-C). Tritones often denote conflict; something not entirely centred and demanding resolution. There are also descents of Minor 3rds from songs 1 to 4 (C#-Am-F#-D) and further descents from songs 5 to 7 (E-C-G). Whether consciously or unconsciously formulated, it is as though descent is a chief conceptual concern. Three of the songs have G major centres (7, 10 and 13) and three have C major/minor (6, 11 and 12). The harmony of each song will be discussed later.

Tempi

Like the harmony, there is more differentiation in tempi on Blind Faith than on its predecessor, Water On Stone. Also, metres are more varied:

Diagram 5

The Love Show	crotchet bpm = 116 – 4/4
Don’t Call Me Honey	crotchet bpm = 176 (minim = 88) – 4/4
Good Liar	dotted crotchet bpm = 60 – 6/8
Sleep Together	crotchet bpm = 112 – 4/4
Womanly Panther	crotchet bpm = 104 – 4/4
Who Are You	crotchet bpm = 88 – 4/4
Sunflower	crotchet bpm = 88 – 4/4
Not The Man	crotchet bpm = 92 – 4/4
Ashes Of Angels	crotchet bpm = 126 – 4/4
Stone Soup	crotchet bpm = 112 – 3/4
When It’s Over	crotchet bpm = 92c. – 4/4
Beautiful	ad. lib/fluctuating tempo – 4/4
Parade	crotchet = 116 – 4/4

The tempo differentiation is wide-ranging. From fast to slow:

Diagram 6

Song 2 – crotchet = 176;

Song 9 – crotchet = 126;

Songs 1 and 13 – crotchet = 116 (forming a tempo frame);

Songs 4 and 10 – crotchet = 112 (medium-paced);

Song 5 – crotchet = 104;

Songs 6, 7, 8 , 11 – crotchet 88-92;

Song 3 – dotted crotchet = 60;

Song 12 – (ad. lib.) 

Design/Artwork

The concept for the artwork is by Colin Vearncombe. The front-cover photo, by Gisil Snaer, shows Vearncombe, back turned, gazing at himself in the mirrored glass of a shop window. Sleeve-notes, front-cover, presents a blurred image of him. The CD back-cover, though, is a clear image. Inside booklet black and white photos of the core band and Colin Vearncombe are by Andy Patterson and Kerry Harvey-Piper. 

Individual Songs

The Love Show

With a medium-fast tempo (crotchet = 116) and in C# major (sounding pitch [guitars play standard chordal shapes i.e. D etc.]), the introduction includes repeated quaver pitches – B-C#-E# – creating a 3+3+2 rhythm (BF Ex. 2) . A climbing solo cello subsequently enters, with a decorated scale from C# to C# an octave higher and a surprising A natural included giving the music a jolt (BF Ex. 3) . 

Vearncombe’s voice enters for the first verse (0:09) with a climbing sequence, creating thematic unity in the first and second phrase (BF Ex. 4) . Bathed in reverb, a distant, high piano gently plays a G# major triad (0:17) in the gap between the first and second phrase, evoking the idea of memory. The arrangement throughout, apart from being sensitively handled, is meaningful pointing-up the emotional verve in Vearncombe’s song. Bass guitar enters on an A# (0:26) giving the music real depth. In turn, this triggers a section in which the harmony becomes particularly inventive, with the guitar playing a Phrygian shift, A# minor to A# minor/B, and back again as the accompaniment for the vocal (BF Ex. 5) . 

The string ensemble wells-up (0:38ff.) carrying the music into the highly-charged chorus (BF Ex. 6) . The line practically reverses the solo cello line heard during the introduction (0:02 – see BF Ex. 3) falling by sequence (C#-B#-A#-G#/B-A-G#-F#). Sequences help a listener’s ear to detect familiarity by making a melody more memorable through easily identifiable shapes. The line eventually reaches C#, an octave lower (0:59ff.).

The second verse (1:03ff.) goes directly into the Phrygian chord shift, rising-up into the chorus as before (1:40ff.). The triplet rhythm heard in the opening cello solo and Vearncombe’s verse vocal provides the music with rhythmic unity. The coda floats on a sea of strings (2:13ff.) with electric piano and low guitar wandering like sonic clouds, with other instruments emerging and disappearing to the end (3:39). 

Calum Malcolm’s production takes the music into the modern dimension and Ian Stephens’ string arrangements follow the example of Robert Kirby’s arrangements for Nick Drake, surrounding the music with a sensual halo. Calum MacColl says, ‘I urged Colin for us to use Calum Malcolm (The Blue Nile). I really wanted this album to be less retro-Colin…Colin struggled with Calum’s approach while we were making it. He felt it was a bit clean, but that was the whole point to me: the juxtaposition of clean lines against the more overtly emotional songs appealed. We’d already planned the sound of the next album: a more 1950s/Righteous Brothers, but I’d also have pushed hard for that to be modern.’ ^[6]Email from Calum MacColl, 10-11-23

Don’t Call Me Honey

The song is fast (crotchet = 176), beginning on Am9 which eventually becomes A major. The guitars are tuned normally with Vearncombe playing acoustic. The feel is modern American but without the raw retro approach of some of Vearncombe’s earlier work. Here MacColl’s slide guitar is reminiscent of Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and Ry Cooder. The light electronic treatment – especially the percussion – is tastefully done, taking the song into the future. Don’t Call Me Honey has a strophic structure and is relatively short (2:54). 

Good Liar

A slow song in 6/8 with a blues-like list (dotted-crotchet = 60). The F# major modality (with guitars tuned down a semitone but without a capo), has Vearncombe playing electric rhythm guitar providing chugging quavers. The harmony resembles US jazz-rock, the texture spacious with voice, guitar, electric piano and bass. The vocal, however, is dry and brought up-close. Yet it is the harmony which is a step on from what has come before:

Verse one:

F# (0:02)| D#m9 (0:06)| G#m7 (0:09)| D#m9 (0:13| B11/F#| C#9/D# (0:21)

The strings enter on the word ‘heart’ (0:25), increasing in intensity throughout the next phrase (1:26ff.) on the words, ‘And let the sky into you/Let it flow through you.’ The evocation of the sky by the strings carry the emotional intensity through to D#m7 on the phrase, ‘I love you’ (0:40) and ‘I’ve loved you from the start’ (0:44ff.). With a biting, yet not harsh, snare-drum the words ‘Don’t let it come between us’ are heightened.

This has all been in preparation for the resolution which comes in the chorus (BF Ex. 7) . Strings and guitar take the music forward into a varied verse, resolving it into the second chorus. The Middle8 has an overriding string presence, with the harmony falling from B major (2:14ff.) to F#9/A# and a striking pivot-chord (2:22) of D/A and E/G# (2:25); subsequently to Bmaj7 (2:29), F#/A# (2:33) and back into the chorus (2:36).

With the texture reduced (2:52), the descending strings remain unresolved at the end on a G#m/sus4 chord. Essentially, non-resolution is the subtext of the song, with hope felt in the chorus.

Sleep Together

The rhythmic Sleep Together follows with its acoustic guitar rhythmic momentum, Dm9 followed by Bbm1/2dim (BF Ex. 8) . A synth ‘bell’ sonority provides an instrumental hook (BF Ex. 9) . 

The verse has Vearncombe’s voice close-up and dry in the mix (BF Ex. 10) savoring the words, ‘Smell you in my hair,’ and the chorus again stretches the vocal phrases (BF Ex. 11) . The subsequent harmony (0:47) on the words ‘darkness shows’ is heightened by B 1/2dim harmony oscillating with Bbmaj7. Harmony has become central to the album’s emotive intent. 

A post-chorus synth section follows, with a backwards glance to the first period output (BF Ex. 12) . The music moves into a spacious resolution on F major (1:34) (BF Ex. 13) . Moving back into the introductory music (1:30), it is transformed by descending 6ths – picked-up by the guitars during the sixth song – Who You Are  – in the keyboards and on into the spacious Middle8.

The coda (2:19) reduces the texture so the voice is clearly heard – ‘…and we sleep together’ – with just vocals, keyboards, electronics and bass allowing the stillness of sleep to be felt. 

Womanly Panther

A medium-paced tango (crotchet=104) in E minor mode, where the act of ‘hot-doggin’ in a stolen car’ is described. The ‘womanly panther’ may be regarded as the anthropomorphic transformation of a man’s anima into a wildcat. Strings transform the song’s basic harmony into something beyond the ordinary, so one becomes unaware of Vearncombe’s penchant for strophic structures. It ends abruptly on, ‘I was born for joy’ (2:56ff.).

Who You Are

Who You Are drifts along in the manner of a Jimmy Webb song. In C major, Calum MacColl begins with solo guitar (BF Ex. 14) which has a fleeting resemblance to the Fleetwood Mac/Danny Kirwan song, Dragonfly (1970).

Leading directly into the almost whispered verse (0:09), it is pure gorgeousness BF Ex. 15 . The second half of the verse cranks-up tension into the chorus, with a further nod towards the soundworld of Jimmy Webb. Here, the quaver step motif casts an eye back to that found on Water on Stone, especially Tonight We Cross The River (BF Ex. 16) . 

The introductory guitar material reappears again an octave higher before the second verse and chorus. A sustained ambient keyboard, together with light drumming, is also present, an acoustic guitar gradually emerging. This allows the words to be clearly foregrounded. No need to hurry here, with the song’s laid-back US feel.

The coda’s striking modulation to Eb major (2:37ff.) includes a descending scale recalling Fleetwood Mac’s Sunny Side Of Heaven from Bare Trees. 

Sunflower

With an arrangement and piano playing by Calum MacColl, the beautiful Sunflower arrives like a musical sorbet. Set at crotchet = 88 in G major, the piano part includes a right-hand ostinato running throughout, the harmony made from 6ths and 9ths (BF Ex. 17) . Vearncombe’s voice fills-in the Major 7^th with a fall of a Perfect 5^th followed by a descending Lydian line (raised 4^th) with a further fall of Perfect 5^th at the phrase ending (BF Ex. 18) . 

On the word ‘Moonshine’ (0:27) the piano bass moves to E (minor), although the same right-hand piano ostinato continues. Here, the minor mode is symbolic of the other side of the sun’s major. With an accumulating texture and E/A 4ths in the bass (0:47ff.), a distorted organ sustain points-up the words, ‘When time overtook you’. The song is perhaps the most overt reference to Scott Walker on the album (BF Ex. 19) . Julie Tippett’s Sunset Glow also has similar dissonant tendencies. 

Subsequently, Vearncombe’s voice becomes increasingly dissonant conveying the ‘acid in the secret heart’ (BF Ex. 20) . Particularly striking is the Augmented 2^nd (Bb-C#) on ‘secret’ (1:04). The crotchet triplets refer to the same in The Love Show appearing throughout the album and creating rhythmic unity. 

Eventually, the harmony becomes E minor and B minor (1:19) until the reappearance of the dissonances (1:35ff.), this time doubled two octaves higher in the piano, with a surprising modulation to C9 on the word ‘suns’ (1:42). ‘Sunflower’ is repeated several times bringing the song to a close over E minor and B minor harmony.

Not The Man

This medium-paced song (crotchet = 92) is in B minor sounding-pitch, although the guitars are tuned a semitone lower playing standard C-F/A-Am chording. 

Beginning with sonar-like keyboards playing a widely-spaced B major chord, it resolves into chugging acoustic guitar (0:11) on B-E-G#m and then C#m-F# (0:31), eventually reaching Bm-F# (0:46). The verse texture so far has been voice, acoustic guitar and keyboards with soft synth bass. But the memorable chorus brings change with full band and faster harmonic rhythm i.e. B major and G#m now fit into one bar alone (BF Ex. 21) . 

The Middle8 moves to the relative minor (G# minor) (1:58ff.), with a sudden abrupt modulation to D/F# – a tritone from G#m – and G# minor moving to F#m7 and, suddenly, up to C#m7, followed. A brief pause follows to let the air clear. These harmonic events underpin the appropriate lines: ‘Running away like we were all afraid of our shadows.’ Whether or not Colin Vearncombe had read C.G. Jung’s works is something we are never likely to know. Suffice to say the ‘shadow’, in analytical psychological terms, is a component of the psyche where all the darkness of our lives is stored. 

Ashes Of Angels

This song is powered by strummed dobro playing standard Am-C-D chording, although the sounding pitch is actually B minor. Coming over as a tight country song, the tempo is fast. Here, Vearncombe’s vocals are double-tracked during the chorus plus a doubled low acoustic during the second verse.

Stone Soup 

A slower (crotchet = 112), Neil Young-inspired country waltz, the harmony is straightforward and accompanimental: G-G-Gmaj7-C9-Cmaj6-C9-Cmaj7 played as standard tuning (BF Ex. 22) . 

The strophic structure follows the same principles as previously, but here the chorus includes dialogue vocals (1:42) underlining the things we need to let go. Vearncombe’s vocal delivery is strong, especially in the upper reaches of the register.

When It’s Over

Medium-paced (crotchet = 92) and in C major, the guitars are in standard tuning. The slightly cliched harmony (C-F-C-F-Em-F/G) is transformed by the strings into something above and beyond what it might have been otherwise. The growling Hammond organ provides a rough edge.

Beautiful

The ad.lib provides Vearncombe an opportunity for heartfelt expression. In C minor sounding-pitch, the falling semitone in the guitar part (2:11ff.) has a certain French quality, as well as being a harmonic device often employed by The Beatles (Eleanor Rigby) and Nick Drake (At The Chime Of A City Clock) (BF Ex. 23) .

Verse one brings out the ‘summer rain’ in the Tonic major (BF Ex. 24) , the chorus squeezing real emotion (BF Ex. 25) . ‘Can it be sin if it begins with a smile?’ asks Vearncombe. Kept purposely simple,  it brings out other elements such as psychological projection: ‘Playful lovers in their Lover’s Play/Don’t see each other as they are…mirror of their deepest need.’ Soft piano and bass tastefully and softly strengthen the song’s fragility. 

Parade

What can one add to describe this exquisite song? It is, undoubtedly, Vearncombe’s finest and most poignant moment. Containing a deep melancholy rarely encountered in pop music it is, without a doubt, anticipatory of Vearncombe’s future.

Parade is made from one element: a chant-like rising line underpinned by simple chording transformed by the arrangement and production. Beginning with a similar ostinato like the beginning of The Love Show and Sunflower (BF Ex. 26) , the E minor harmony is transformed by 4ths (E-A), an interval which has previously appeared in Sunflower, and further transformed by C major in another guitar (0:04) and the keyboards Bm7 (0:09). 

Here, verses and chorus do not operate as such with ‘first section’ and ‘second section’ being more appropriate terminology. Section one has Vearncombe’s voice distanced in the mix with huge reverb (BF Ex. 27) . The addition of electronic percussion with a slow dragging pulse (0:45) is a masterstroke taking Vearncombe, and the song, into the beyond. During the second section Vearncombe’s dried-out vocal is brought up close in the mix (BF Ex. 28) . 

Moving back into the first section with the words now ‘Breathe in, breathe out’ and then into ‘We gather up the dreams we need to fly/But leave with nothing’, the scale is extended upwards and heavenwards (BF Ex. 29) . The subsequent ‘walk on’ and ‘breathe in, breathe out’ have a descending keyboards glissandi, the ostinato in the guitar continuing to the end. 

A song to savour, and the final Requiem and testimony for Colin Vearncombe’s unique musical legacy and life. His management comment, ‘It is heartbreaking that the final track on the final album was Parade. Even today, nearly eight years after Colin’s death, I still can’t listen to it.’ ^[7]Email from Colin Vearncombe management, 8.11.23 

Coda

Blind Faith is not self-consciously attempting to reference the past like some of Colin Vearncombe’s previous releases, however highly one might regard them. At 53, Vearncombe was in the afternoon of life, not wishing to jostle with a contemporary generation bent on celebrity. He had already been a part of that in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, managing to escape into something more appropriate to his unique style. And yet, there are instances where he looks back to previous days as in the bell-like synths of Sleep Together which appear in earlier releases. The album presents a listener is with Vearncombe’s wholeness; a feeling of the combined opposites of darkness and light now contained within the writer.

The performances on Blind Faith are as strong as ever with Vearncombe’s voice always evergreen. The arrangements are noteworthy piloting the songs towards the final pathos-saturated Parade which transforms them into ambient synthesizers. The modern production provides the songs with an edge appropriate to the subject matter. Overall, Blind Faith is a triumph and something with which Colin Vearncombe would have been immensely proud.

Postscript 

‘In my end is my beginning.’  

To recap, these essays began two years following a holiday in West Cork. At the time I had no idea that Colin Vearncombe had lived there, and a while later Nero Schwarz would make contact inviting me to write something about his music. Initially, I was asked for an essay every three months, something which was manageable up to Water On Snow when I very nearly gave up. It was then suggested that perhaps an essay once every six months might be more appropriate. I complied with the request up to Smoke Up Close, but turning to Between Two Churches I became really fired-up completing the last three essays at breakneck speed. The final period of Vearncombe’s output struck me as having real significance. A summary of certain features of the music and career will follow. 

For a start – as Black or Colin Vearncombe – he is a singer-songwriter with a fine vocal delivery and songwriting at the centre of everything. Many of the songs are designed with strophic structures where verses repeat the same melodies with different words. There are repeating choruses designed as memorable hooks. Vearncombe is a modern troubadour-like balladeer, accompanying his voice on guitar, piano and occasional harmonica, and many of the songs are autobiographical, while some are observations on love and relationships as the key themes. Beyond everything, Vearncombe gives voice to our own life experiences through his own experience, the songs being the vehicle for the expression.

Influences are varied but stem from the singer-songwriter tradition whether UK or US: Scott Walker, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Jimmy Webb. Yet, these are transformed through Vearncombe’s idiomatic approach and modern arrangements. There is also some interest in traditional European dance styles such as tango and, even, bolero.

The melodies are often conjunct (step-wise) with arpeggiated leaps from time to time. There are also moments of vocal extension by improvisation. The accompanying harmony is usually straightforward with melodies conceived from underlying chord sequences, as though received inspirationally. The minor mode is deployed throughout to convey melancholia, nostalgia and regret; the major is brighter, conveying periods of elation. Accompanying chords are rarely difficult and straightforward to play. It is as though everything was written fast to grasp the inspirational moment lest it fly away. White-heat of the moment songs are subsequently developed through refinement or through collaboration with other musicians. The addition of band or string arrangements and then recording is the final stage in the process.

From the beginning songs such as More Than The Sun encapsulate the Vearncombe style with references to nineteenth century Romanticism (Edgar Allan Poe). Now signed to A&M Records, the first period of musical output has Wonderful Life (1987) – probably his best-known song – at the forefront and is the first indication of the themes that would occur throughout Vearncombe’s career. Here, the mode is E minor oscillating with G major; darkness to light, like clouds passing quickly over the sun. The album demonstrates heartbreak and post-breakup trauma in a dramatic fashion. Other key songs are Everything’s Coming Up Roses, Paradise and Sweetest Smile with 1980s all with arrangements and production values.

The follow-up, Comedy, released in 1988, introduces the elements of place and dance with references to Spain. As such, instruments such as classical Spanish guitar making an appearance. The dance-centred I Can Laugh About It Now, or the tango-inspired Now You’re Gone, are key songs. The Big One, You’re A Big Girl Now and Paradise Lost are other stand-outs. The overall mood is one of melancholia with the minor mode dominating. There is also big US-style AOR in It’s Not Over Yet.

Black, was released in 1991 and Vearncombe’s final release for A&M. With the 1980s gone and a changing scene, bands like Blur were beginning to have an impact on the mainstream. Feels Like Change suggests change is in the air. Vearncombe’s introversion began to distance him from the wider scene. Here, many of the songs here are set in major modes, with stand-outs such as Fly Up To The Moon and Too Many Times. Ballads remain central to the album and there is the big AOR song, Learning How To Hate.

Two years later, following his departure from A&M, Are We Having Fun Yet? was released, beginning the departure from the dominance of 1980s-style productions. A US style emerges coinciding with Vearncombe’s decision to go ‘indie’. The album includes Don’t Take The Silence Too Hard and the dramatic Ave Lolita. The performances – particularly Martin Green’s – are strong. There is decisive harmonic development mainly through Vearncombe’s growing interest in piano playing. Minor keys are again widely deployed and real strings, combined with synth strings, are introduced providing opportunity to escape from dated 1980s technology.

The second period of musical output illustrates a dramatic shift in style. The Accused, released under his own name rather than the Black nomer, was released on the Nero Schwarz label. Although a sense of melancholia persists, songs such as Sleeper are more optimistic with jangling Byrds-like guitar textures. It is during this period that Vearncombe dedicates himself to songwriting craft, working alongside Boo Hewerdine and Calum MacColl. The album is sparingly arranged, with a reliance on major modes as opposed to the previously pervasive minor. The final three songs, St. Cecilia, Blue Sky and Surrender form a triptych anticipating the concept of the later Between Two Churches. 

Water On Snow, produced and arranged by Martin Green, veers ever more to the US singer-songwriter field. Here, real strings become predominant. The major mode dominates with only the title-song in the minor. Colin Vearncombe’s vocal and acoustic guitar are central to the music, particularly on the stand-out songs Water On Snow and Black Eyed Susan. Although the album references America, there are glances back to the past on Famous and Cool.

Smoke Up Close is a double-album of Vearncombe alone. Shorn of band arrangements and sophisticated production, here is vocal, guitar, harmonica and piano alone. Released in 2002, and influenced by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Smoke Up Close includes thirty songs written to order without the inspiration-gestation process of previous albums. Even so, it retains Vearncombe’s idiomatic approach. Stripped of any pretentions and recorded by Martin Green, we hear songs as they originally emerged. Stand-outs are The Wishing, Joni, Quinn’s Old Flame and the striking piano-accompanied The Sunshine. A third of the songs are in major modes.

Returning to the Black moniker, the third period begins with the magnificent Between Two Churches (2005). Produced by Calum MacColl, it was recorded in South Africa and London with the US West Coast influence becoming ever more pronounced. A concept album centering on a birth to death journey, spontaneity is at its core. Stand-out songs are Come Out Of The Rain, Charlemagne and the memorable In A Heartbeat.  Like Wonderful Life, and the later Parade, the song was conceived spontaneously and recorded very quickly. 

2009 brought a concept within a concept album. Conveying the opposites of dark and light, Water On Stone/The Given includes some of the energy found on Between Two Churches. Water On Stone is under the Black moniker; The Given, however, uses Vearncombe’s own name. Water On Stone highlights some kind of trauma, which songs like Tonight We Cross The River, Frozen Water and Stormy Waters convey. The Given, however, is an album of elation and optimism. Both are unified by a pitch-motif picked-up in the final release, Blind Faith. Water On Stone includes a DVD of eight short films featuring Colin Vearncombe with the songs from the album as soundtracks. 

The final album, Blind Faith (2015), shines like a beacon in the darkness of much twenty-first century pop. Known only by a few, the overriding sense here is of Vearncombe’s fate. With the Scott Walker influence paramount, along with meaningful string arrangements in The Love Show and elsewhere, the stripped-back Sunflower and, possibly, Vearncombe’s finest song – the Requiem-like Parade – are part of an album standing head and shoulders above the others. Indeed, it is as though Wonderful Life and Parade form a frame – the two finest songs first and last – with others such as Sweetest Smile, Joni, Charlemagne and In A Heartbeat in the centre. This proves that Colin Vearncombe was more than just Wonderful Life, the song he was always trying to surpass. He was far more than a one-hit-wonder.

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On January 10^th 2016, Colin Vearncombe was involved in a car accident on his way to Cork airport in Ireland. He ended up in a coma from which he never recovered, passing away from head injuries. He was 54. In writing these essays, I’ve found I’ve got to know something of the man and his music, something I wish I’d been aware of more fully many years before. Colin, you are only partially right when you say, ‘We leave with nothing’ to quote your phrase from Parade. You may have left life, but you’ve left us with a vital, living body of musical material which, in years to come, can only grow in importance. It is because of this you remain alive for a great many people throughout the world. 

Thank you to several people who’ve helped me along the way: Camilla Griehsel, all at Nero Schwarz, Martin Green, Calum MacColl, Andy Patterson, Peter Sweeney and Mark Graham.

Appendix 

Calum MacColl fills-in some details about the songwriting process:

‘The fact is, Col was a wee bit writers blocked. We’d co-written songs before but had never really hit it off as co-writers until we became so close for the last few years of his life. We were always very different as writers, but the very thing that made us a writing mismatch in the early days worked totally in our favour on Blind Faith. All the songs on Blind Faith were written from scratch by both of us in the year leading up to recording, with the exception of The Love Show. That was a stalled song of ours (with different lyrics) from maybe ten years previous.

We wrote in various sessions, both at my house and a couple of sessions at a farm in the Lake District owned by wife’s family and, like I say, all from scratch. I would demo as we went; some bits and pieces ending up on the finished album; found sounds, textures etc.

The album is lyrically 99.9% his. He was always very protectionist about lyric writing. I get it, even though the lyric end is one of my strong points as a writer (in the blood etc). We both came from very different places lyrically. It didn’t offend me one jot: I implicitly understood that he felt that it was his lyrics that defined him as an artist. Having said that, try stopping me from chipping in/editing/refining. We whittled and whittled; loads of detail. 

It worked like this: I drove the bus harmonically; we both took equal time at the wheel melodically; he drove lyrically with me asleep, periodically waking up to point out he’d taken the wrong turning. I also wanted to work hard on this album to get him away from ‘comfortable’ harmonic tropes (like e minor!).

I’m a slow lyric writer – draft/revision/re-revision x 10 – but Colin could be glacial. We’d often have whole shapes and tunes with lyrical scraps and hooks, and it could take him a couple of months to deliver. With some exceptions. Who You Are was a drunken evening in the Lakes. Perhaps we should have called the album ‘Blind Drunk’! Don’t Call Me Honey, we had the shape and chorus in ten minutes flat. The rest of the song took weeks.

Sunflower was a song that was planned. Colin was a massive Bond 007 film fan. He fantasised about being the theme singer. We decided that Sunflower would be a great Bond film title, then came up with this. In its original harmonic version, it does the big West End thing you’d expect – then Calum Malcolm brought the Blue Nile treatment to it. I love Calum for that!

Parade was the quickest write on the album. We were in the Lakes and got the news that our old friend Joppo had died. We were in the shock state that you get with bad news like that. We pretty much wrote this one in real time. It’s a Vearncombe family fave. In the context of Colin going, it still floors me.’ ^[8]Email from Calum MacColl, 24.11.23

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Author: Andrew Keeling     © 2024 Nero Schwarz Music Limited

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