Graeme James - 'The Weight of Many Winters'
Graeme James shares a serene yet troubled cut of indie folk on the title track of his new EP, ‘The Weight of Many Winters’.
Perhaps it is safe to say that winter is the most reflective and emotive season of them all. Of course, in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter who coldly sees off the end of a year and grips at our hands, tugging us into a brand new year full of fresh expectations. Within ‘The Weight of Many Winters’ EP, Graeme James draws inspiration from “the emotional and physical landscape of the winter season” and the EPs title track translations that well.
’The Weight of Many Winters’ is an exquisitely crafted single opening with warm fingerpicking, a plucky opening in all senses of the word, instilling a driving melody into the track that is persistent in squirming away from the sorrow that Graeme James’s poetic storytelling expresses. In fact, there is, at times, such a cosiness to the track’s sonic composition, it is easy for James to disguise the inner turmoil of the piece.
However, once you peel away at the layers and focus on the lyrics, there is an unwavering chill as James poignantly confides, “I don’t know why sometimes I feel the weight of many winters in my bones.” James’s impressive vocal delivery ranges from brooding and grounded, to floaty and ethereal; his voice the perfect instrument to ignite emotion in the core of his listener.
There’s also a glacial cinematic feel to the track as it develops, seeing the song heighten with a sophisticated intensity that is deeply beautiful. The track closes on an oddly romantic instrumental that compliments James’ conflicted feelings in his lyrical theme wonderfully.
In a broader sense, ‘The Weight of Many Winters’ EP explores the themes of death, desperation and weakness. It is, in part, an existential EP that links the desolate winter landscape to our own mortality. But it also sings of the hope that can be found from enduring winter’s kiss, to be greeted by spring, where nature and our souls, can be nourished and reborn once more.
’The Weight of Many Winters’ is out now via Nettwerk Records.
Words of Karla Harris