Album Notes

Following directly from his previous release “A pair of horses” and recorded mostly live, Beautiful Failure displays Warren Gaskell at his most poetic yet and at times, his most economical. This collection of songs touches a number of different emotions and includes melodies that linger with lyrical muses that Gaskell is beginning to become synonymous with. The album harbours both soft unassuming folksy edges and rootsy country overtones. With contributions from Alan Cook on pedal steel and Dobro the album has clear country overtones (Yesterday’s News) without treading wholeheartedly, both freet first into the genre. Lovelorn acoustic ballads like “Call on me” and “Breaking Down” define the main themes of the album and litter the soundtrack with emotive, spine tingling melodies that are alluringly spare, with only the occasional slide guitar to decorate them. Some songs are surprisingly sparse. The title track “Beautiful Failure’ weighing in at only two minutes long and providing an earthy folksy dusting to the album with exceptional sensitivity. There are classic alt.country archetypes in here too “Shadow’s of Greed” and “Run into these arms” most notably, but overall the album has a country influenced earthy atmosphere and displays mature, confident, and at times incredibly lingering tunes.
It’s very much the sound of a UK writer, albeit one influenced with rough rootsy edges and a healthy breath of country air.