The Roving Crows - The Roving Crows

The multi award winning band The Roving Crows kick starts their year with this exciting EP, which previews the much anticipated 2013 album set for realise in October. Their first album Bacchanalia has been extremely popular, making its way onto national radio.

This four track EP opens with an upbeat, even jolly track called If I Had To Choose, giving us a great fiddle and vocal start. Part way through we get a nice trumpet addition which takes the song into a different turn before flipping back to the original format. The message in the song is a typical one of choosing love and friendship as important qualities to find in life (as the title of the song would suggest).

One Day has a similar instrument line up, starting with a fiddle and vocals, giving us a slow and gentle story about the power of family. This track is by far the easiest story to follow and really presents us with the excellent story-telling skills of the band. The middle of the track takes advantage of The Roving Crows’ powerful voices, cutting the other instruments for a small time and gives us the chance to feel their voices exclusively before easing back the other sounds that the instruments provide.

Weather takes a completely different turn, starting with a mystical drum beat which lightly thuds throughout the tune, keeping an eerie and even slightly Arabian sound. This is supported by the occasional pluck of a guitar and mysterious fiddling that jumps in and out of the track at various points, adding to the misty image that the tune provides. Similar to If I Had To Choose, the lyrics are very metaphorical and cryptic, making it fun to decipher.

Finally the EP ends with a live recording taken from a show in Watson Hall from 2012. The Guns starts with a gentle slow instrumental and then builds the excitement as the fiddle goes faster and faster until the track explodes into a wonderful dance track that really gets you going and tapping your feet.

This EP does a great job of showing how The Roving Crows can do many different things with their sound, they show a whole spectrum of musical styles within their own distinct signature and it really helps to build up excitement and curiosity for the upcoming album.