The Golden Dregs

On 'Godspeed', for the first time, each band member contributes individually, but Woods’ songwriting and resonant baritone remain at the core — an anchor welcoming listeners into the fold.

The city plays its part here. A very close ear will pick up London’s cranky ambience, recorded on a handheld recorder by synth player Davy Roderick, then woven into the songs. And where the previous The Golden Dregs record, 'On Grace & Dignity' (4AD), held up a light to and lamented a certain kind of rural experience, 'Godspeed' turns the contrast up three or four notches above its predecessor, feeling cut through with the spirit of the city because of it. The highs are higher: a wall of sound soars more and more euphorically on penultimate track, "The Wave”. The lows are lower: “I think I’ve had enough to last a lifetime” announces the chorus on "The Weight of it All”, a beautifully devastating homage to irreparable situations, sung by Issie Armstrong. “People have inspired this record. To be in a densely crowded space, surrounded by strangers, and to think for a moment how every person is living out their own stories, figuring out loss and love and frustration and all the things that make up the human experience - I find that so curious. It’s a deeply personal record, but I like to think that it is personal with open arms, an experience to be shared.”

Indeed, The Golden Dregs’ songs have always been less about telling individual stories and more about narrative vignettes, snippets of images that leave the listener guessing. And although 'Godspeed' has a clear sense of character — “I came here to drink on my own, I don’t see the problem” (Heron) eerie synthesisers abounding; “maybe it’s time I was taken out to pasture / since lately I’ve been getting it wrong” (The Company of Strangers) — this is not introspective music. It looks beyond its author and his immediate situation to something more collective. While it continues the sonic signatures of the previous records from The Golden Dregs, 'Godspeed' is more immediate. The hooks are constant — hear “Perfume”, “The Company of Strangers”, Stranglers-esque cut “If You’d Seen Him” — but rarely resort to familiar tropes, leaving room for unpredictable turns.