A Top Quality Debut
East Anglian wordsmith Greg McDonald’s debut solo album ‘Stranger at the Door’ is a gripping affair that mines into your brain and demands an emotional response. Sometimes they simply feel melancholy, for example tearjerker ‘The Firedrake’, which melts you with its delicacy; other times the tunes are simply heart-warming odes to emotions.
Every song feels as ambitious as the next ‘Stranger at the Door’ addresses illegal immigration, while ‘Not The End of the World’ is as brave as to lyricise the apocalypse itself. Whether this is all successful is another question, as the latter at least feels slightly overwhelmed by its florid instrumentation but it’s still heartfelt enough to cause a shiver in your spine.
Single, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ is probably as good a point as any to come to Greg’s work; it’s a sweet, balmy love song with a lulling melody and sweet liaisons between male and female vocals. ‘Cheap Flight To Paradise’ adapts a traditional tune into a menacing, doom-laden fiery folk ballad with a sparkling mix of instruments.
The tunes are all glorious and beautifully well written ��" Greg boasts a winning position in New York’s International Songwriting Competition ��" but at some points the instrumental arrangements seem to drown the feelings out a little. Perhaps it’s because singer/songwriters usually pride themselves on simplicity of arrangement and we’re simply not used to the sumptuous array of keyboards, strings and guitars on offer. ‘The Children in the Forest’ for example, climaxes in a glorious whirlwind of stunning instruments and fluttering opera vocals.
‘Stranger at the Door’ is an album full of storytelling par excellence that charms with its beautiful songs. It’s one to muse over and get you dreaming on long, dark winter nights when you need someone to whisper words in your ear. A mesmerising and delightful collection of tunes.