JAMES YORKSTON : WHEN THE HAAR ROLLS IN

1. B's Jig
2. Tortoise Regrets Hare
3. Temptation
4. When The Haar Rolls In
5. Queen Of Spain
6. Midnight Feast
7. Would You Have Me Born With Wooden Eyes?
8. Summer's Not The Same Without You
9. The Capture Of The Horse

Label : Domino

Release Date : September 1, 2008

Length : 49:20

Review (BBC) : By the time the simple, rolling acoustic guitar of the title track of this, the fourth album by Yorkston, kicks in, you're feeling far away from home. Instruments gently creak in the manner of rotting ships moored forever in harbour. Deep in the galley lies Yorkston, singing of, ''salty tongues like lounge singers''. Accordions, flutes and the somber warmth of the steam from a mug of tea, while sat in a deserted café in a Scottish port town seems to be Yorkston's comfort zone, and When The Haar Rolls In is a folkish testament to towns, people and houses where time not so much stands still, but merely seeps away unnoticed. The groggy, hungover feel of this record is concomitant with Yorkston's voice: a resonant burr that will bear inevitable comparisons with Nick Drake, but actually has far more of a experienced baritone feel that speaks of one too many late night cigarettes on the night bus. Occasionally the spume from the harbour gets in your eyes such as in the more seditious harmonies of Midnight Feast, a track written by the late British folk singer, Lal Waterson. Here a monotone, hypnotic throb builds up to a climax hinting at something entirely more rambunctious: coming across like an anarchic sea-shanty as Yorkston asks us to, ''come one step closer or stay away''. While still best-known as a member of the 'Fence Collective' - also a stable for KT Tunstall and The Beta Band - When the Haar Rolls In, while cloaked in clarinets and violas, is going to be best remembered for Yorkston's striking voice. It's one of the most memorable in British folk music right now.

Review (PopMatters) : When the Haar Rolls In, the latest by Scotland’s James Yorkston, documents the fragility of the human condition. It contains fear, despair, loss and regret. Any hint of redemption comes offered with the knowledge everything could fall apart anyway. Though melodic, the music sets up for crying jags or post-funeral gatherings. And it’s also one of the most consistently compelling and beautiful records to be released in quite a while. Generally speaking, this is a folk record. But Yorkston approaches folk the way artists such as Colin Meloy and Devendra Banhart do: He keeps one eye on the melody and the other on arrangement and production. These elements, combined with the poetry of the lyrics, work together with such symmetry it could easily be taken for granted. The expertise is presented as off-handed; therefore, it’s a bit surprising to discover how immediately the songs stick in the listener’s head. This isn’t Britney Spears but, in a different universe, it could well be. “B’s Jig” opens the record with the rather sad omission, “If you ever find yourself a wondering / Then please my love show up / You have my word your name is on every guest list”. Harp, banjo and double bass are added to the traditional guitar and piano instrumentation, but the sustainment of the vibraphone truly gives this song its relative punch, played behind the lines, “You were the first, child / You were it all, child”. Touches like this adorn the record. A plethora of instruments being used is commonplace, maybe even just plain common at this point. But used well is a different point altogether, and Yorkston and his band prove both precise and feeling. When the Hammond comes in two-thirds of the way through the title track (‘Haar’, by the way, is fog), and it sounds like screaming, one knows the arrangement is set to warn of times turning tough — and they do. The narrator gets through it with music and drink, pleading for quiet as, yes, the myriad instruments drop out to provide the proper background, leaving a sparse few to do the job. The lyrics can also be picked apart for their beauty and determination to present the messiness of human relationships. When the Haar Rolls In doesn’t classify as a love dedication, nor a breakup record, but as something somewhere in-between. “Summer’s Not the Same Without You” shows the underlying fear that always accompanies love: Summer isn’t the same without you I miss your cunning claws as you bat me away I teased you into striking My face red raw but smiling And the key to it all Is the love that we seek But love it can fray It can come awry Elsewhere, striking lines abound: “I sleep with your songs running up my arms / And curling around and keeping me warm” from “Tortoise Regrets Hare”. “I carry your memory like a bag full of feathers / Once stuck in the back of my throat / But now a warming dream finally” from “When the Haar Rolls In”. James Yorkston may be able to write melodies that will appeal to the kids who are wondering which phone they should buy next, but his lyrics are for those who have cruelly crushed a heart and live with regret or are contemplating an online-dating service to combat loneliness. This is a record to notice. James Yorkston has created art of high caliber with When the Haar Rolls In. With strong pop melodies, the words of a poet and the heart of a man with many flaws, this release can be recommended to almost anyone. In these days, with a metaphorical fog settling across the whole world, right now might be a good time to take a moment to notice, in Yorkston’s words, “That’s when the music, I swear, gets me through / I close my eyes and everything is OK”.

Review (Dusted Magazine) : Folk music has long been a window into the most basic concerns of the working class, whether it’s coming from the mouths of those affected most or from a concerned observer in the tradition of Seeger or Brel. Some sing to make the unappreciated more visible, while some use their gift of expression to simply bring beauty to an otherwise wearisome disposition. When the Haar Rolls In is the fourth solo album from James Yorkston and it achieves the difficult task of being relevant to modern society while remaining a legitimate extension of the folk genre. The landscape is descriptive and visual, a world full of archetypes and outsiders narrated by Yorkston’s calm cadence. His delivery equates steadiness and heroism without promoting the narcissism and recklessness that often accompanies such resonance, partly because melancholy is simply a more inclusive emotion than satisfaction. “Sadness swept through me like a stubborn sea wind / When I’m feeling my worst the best news in the world fails to move me / I cannot bear to touch or share a word.” Those lines, from the title track, are indicative of Yorkston’s willingness to let music get him through the times he finds himself “waiting out,” as well as the adjusted role of the folk singer that he embodies so well. When the Haar Rolls In speaks of countrysides and long nights spent at the pub, existing on the margins without ignoring the obvious shift towards a more urban, mechanized dominant culture. It is a return to the hung-over ballads that made his 2002 debut with the Athletes so timely. There is not much sympathy for the drunken cheers of last year’s The Year of the Leopard in our sobered-up society and folk music has never practiced the escapism that propels most mainstream music. To hear the arrangements tremble with excitement as Yorkston, barely audible at points, switches casually between allusion and vulnerability is to hear the conflict behind his work. His songwriting, with lyrics pulled from journals, is purely of the observe-and-comment variety, while musically he celebrates and indulges in the overwhelming tradition of Scottish, Irish and English folk. The contrasting composition is a testament to the inner doubt and the outer show of confidence that beleaguers the modern man. When the Haar Rolls In doesn’t sustain the energy of previous Yorkston albums. He rarely exhibits an urgency for change or drama - two things folk music often does well. He does succeed, however, in describing the world he lives in with equal parts romance and desolation. With Haar, Yorkston embraces the antiquity of the folk singer in a post-everything world and still manages to make relevant the traditional basis of his music.