Post-Christmas, when our waistbands are complaining and we can’t face another selection tub of chocolates, our minds start to focus on the end of one year and the start of another. Lists of resolutions are being written, gym memberships are being contemplated, and the promises we make ourselves are as yet unbroken. If these things seem like hard work then the new single from Liz Overs, ‘Prayer To The Year’, will be the perfect solution to slow the current year and allow a moment of quiet reflection.
The single was released for the Winter Solstice and is taken from the forthcoming album NIGHTJAR. The Winter Solstice is one of two times in the year when the Earth’s poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun and the midwinter solstice marks the longest night before daylight starts to incrementally increase. The gentle thrum of the song, driven by stringed instruments and Overs’ voice of soft exhalations, falls perfectly in that liminal space between darkest winter and the promise of Spring. The lyrics (printed below the video) are gorgeous and conjure spectacular wintery allusions with lines like “Colours are brimstone, oak ash and thorn” and “Copper the bracken sets the forest ablaze.”
The video is directed by Dylan Howitt, the man responsible for the beautiful and melancholy film The Nettle Dress (which I reviewed in 2023). Micro and macro shots of the forest along with Liz Overs reflections in water perfectly match the mood of the song, and you can get lost in contemplation whether you are watching the video or just listening to this soporific folk-hymn to winter flora.
Neill MacColl: Marxophone, Guitaret, Ben Nicholls: Banjo, Liz Overs: Vocals and David Tomlins: Acoustic Guitar.
Liz Overs socials: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
Black is the nightshade and the feast of the crow
Eight is the secret that we never will know
And all is a tangle of river and root
East of the sunlight and west of the moon
Colours are brimstone, oak ash and thorn
Here in the valley with the ripening corn
A walk with the gorse flower is always in bloom
East of the sunlight and west of the moon
Blackthorn the winter, frost in the Spring
This year the rains came on a gatekeeper’s wing
Scarlet the garland, a prayer to the year
When summer is hiding in an old man’s beard
Gold is the promise in a sparkling flame
Copper the bracken sets the forest ablaze
Silver the birch tree will whisper a tune
East of the sunlight and west of the moon
Review by Paul F Cook
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