Red Sky July - How To Get Your Love - Single Review
Red Sky July certainly have an interesting history behind them. Each member being steeped in music from a young age and (according to their website: www.redskyjuly.com) had been wanting to make music together for a long time. Primarily consisting of Charity Hair (previously a solo artist signed by the label of Dave Rowntree - the drummer of Blur), Shelley Poole (daughter of Brian Poole and one half of Alisha's Attic) and Ally McErlaine (a self-taught guitarist and previous member of the 15 million-selling Texas - no big deal), Red Sky July have a lot on their CV to bring to the fore. After already writing several songs as this trio, the musical harmony was disrupted in tragedy as McErlaine suffered a major brain aneurysm and remained in a precarious state of health for a year. Naturally, the band was put on hold for around two years. Thankfully, McErlaine recovered and Red Sky July resoundingly picked up where they left off, and set about recording their debut album. What we have here, then, is one of those tracks.
How To Get Your Love is a competent display by accomplished musicians. The opening seconds are Fleet Foxes-esque hymnal harmonies that give way to rolling, restrained plucks of the acoustic guitar. Musically it sounds similar to Amy Macdonald's This is the Life, except hazier and slower paced. The lyrics are deceptively simple pop, sung very well by Hair and Poole, their vocals subtly complimenting each other and harmonizing throughout. It's catchy, easy-on-the-ears folk-pop that does stand repeated listening. While it might not be labelled 'classic' or 'timeless', it's short, sweet pop music that makes for a promising album.