JudasKiss - Twelve Thousand Days – “From the Walled Garden” CD (Shining Day)

Twelve Thousand Days – “From the Walled Garden” CD (Shining Day)

Written by Renee Johnson

The first time I heard this album, I was borrowing a friend’s car, and the speakers were terrible. I was disappointed in the album, at first; how was I to know it was just the speakers and not Bates’ tendency for tinny recording techniques? The combination of both left me wanting to hear it on a good system, which I was eventually able to do.

I'm glad that I gave it another chance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t live up to the teaser EP “At the Landgate: Three Cuttings from the Walled Garden,” three songs that I will never forget. I’m a huge fan of Martyn Bates and all that he lends his golden vocal chords to, and was hoping for another masterpiece. While it’s a lovely album, enchanting and shimmering, it’s by no means mind blowing. Where's the spoken word poetry? Where are the nods to modern poetry and the poets that wrote it? Those were all apparently cut for the finished product...

“Ballad of the Cutty Wren” is based on a traditional ballad, something which I tend to obsess over. Their take on the traditional is innovative and certainly fits into their usual rolling-wall-of-shimmering-sound technique. Perhaps it didn’t quite gel for me because it’s not one of my favorite ballads, but the music should speak for itself, I think.

More than one track is unremarkable. Without the usual Twelve Thousand Days beautiful guitar work, amazing vocal harmonies and lyrical prowess, there would be no enduring substance at all. Thankfully, they survive on that alone, at times.

“Cries Distant Calling” caught me completely off guard. I was not expecting something so poppy to end up on this album. It’s like Psychic TV doing the Beach Boys: you sure as hell don’t expect it, but you can’t deny that it works incredibly well.

“The Cruel Mother” is another traditional ballad which actually *is* one of my favorites. It’s hard to find new and interesting arrangements for traditional songs to make them your own. Bates and Trench create something beautiful and bittersweet which really carries the message of the ballad. The interpretation that Bates did with MJ Harris was so much more sinister and bleak, focusing only on the death and jealousy in the ballad, rather than giving us any of the love.

Hopefully, this is just a slump for Bates and Trench and their next collaboration will bring back some of the incredible work we saw on the three songs that were cut from this full length.

contact: