William the Conqueror’s Excuse Me While I Vanish is a wonderful album of big guitar-trio rock with clever lyrics and drama to burn.
The Cornwall-based trio features Ruarri Joseph on guitar/vocals, Naomi Holmes on bass and Harry Harding on drums. Together, they conjure a magical rock vibe that meshes huge riffs, psych memories and folk touches, all of which echo the brilliance of Tom Verlaine, Lou Reed, David Byrne and even (perhaps) the great Fred Neil.
The first song, “The Puppet and the Puppeteer,” burns for six minutes with insightful lyrics, a tough guitar pulse, a really cool bass line (thank you, Naomi!), an intricate eye-of-the-storm interlude, and a really great vocal that glances at the arty delivery of Byrne. This is immense rock music that grinds with street talk, is casual with wisdom, and rocks with a red-hot guitar sermon that’s riveted with electric punctuation.
Then “The Bruises” throttles back with a folk-rock vibe, wonderfully sympathetic percussion, and a really melodic vocal. It’s a great tune, with a “For What It’s Worth” psych-guitar wobbly rear-mirror glance. Likewise, “Elsie Friend” is folky and melodic with a big chorus, a cool guitar solo and perhaps, it touches a Beatles’ really decent swirling Rubber Soul psych-pop vibe.
There’s a nice take on the blues: “Sheepskin Steve” prowls with spooky guitar footsteps, lyrics that cross bible religion with the thought of “dreaming of her in that dress,” and a huge guitar riot pulsing like (to add a biblical allusion) the Red Sea as it crashed upon the Pharaoh’s chariots.
“L. W. Y.” shifts to a sad and quiet reflection that sifts the shoreline with a soft tide that is reluctant to leave the memory of a long-ago youthful beachside love. By the way, the guitar solo and backing vocals are sublime. “Shots Fired from Heaven” is slow-walked into the huge weather of big vocal and guitar tempest, which conjure the memory of Savoy Brown circa “Lost and Lonely Child,” from their Hellbound Train album.
Ditto for William the Conqueror’s tuneful song “The Tether,” which has a forlorn vocal drama, with a deep well of emotional guitar angst. This is powerful stuff, that (to get all biblical again) can still curse the Walls of Jericho. The blues continue with “A Minute’s Peace.” The song thumps despair, and echoes the long-ago memory of (the great) Peter Green’s emotive blues soul.
The heart of this new William the Conqueror album is the ultra-hummable “Somebody Else,” as the trio’s guitar, voice, bass and drums sound finds its perfect equilibrium, with a love-lost vocal, a persistent bass pulse and percussion, with an added guitar sunburst as the song burns into a bundle of electric nerves. The tune is a wondrous submission to some sort of perfect rock-band circumference.
As the lights fade into the final song, “In Your Arms” conjures love, loss and life, but it also plays into the patience between old thought and perhaps any infinite moment. There’s a gospel-urged pulse and simple revelation as the chorus and big guitar sound swell with the flood of huge baptismal waters.
In the end, William the Conqueror has created a red-hot guitar sermon with that good old-fashioned electric punctuation of riveted rock-trio insight. Excuse Me While I Vanish grinds with honest street talk, yet delivers in the fine print of its grooves the quite casual (yet always essential) ancient Greek chorus of rock ‘n’ roll wisdom.
- Coincidence – ‘Coincidence,’ ‘Clef de Ciel’ + ‘Archives 1973-1974’ (2024) - November 17, 2024
- Mile Marker Zero – ‘Coming of Age’ (2024) - October 14, 2024
- Burton Cummings – ‘A Few Good Moments’ (2024) - October 7, 2024
