Welsh trio Adwaith return with a statement-making 23-song double album. Simon Tucker reviews.
Motion. Development (Datblygu). Confidence. Ambition. Where does an artist summon these from? What does one do when you feel like things have exceeded your own ambitions? Does the artist sit back into a position of comfort, resting on a well rehearsed familiarity with their muse? Do they push onwards with an inflated sense of self thus expanding beyond their means and creating works that are all empty expressions of faux-artistic expression? Or do they walk that tightrope and deliver works that fully warrant their existence within the artists catalogue?. When it comes to music, one of the finest answers to the above questions lives within the borders of the double album. Even reading those words can induce feelings of intrigue and/or trepidation. There have been examples of artists getting the art of the double album exactly right and there have been examples where artists have filled a double album with swampy filler and lazy experiments.
So where does Solas sit? Have Welsh trio Adwaith pushed too far or have they stuck the landing? Well, before we get there we have to examine what has preceded it. In the ten years that Adwaith have been together they have released two Welsh Music Prize winning albums (2018’s Melyn and 2022’s Bato Mato), travelled the world, left their hometown, come back and lived an extraordinary life. Through their music we have seen them grow from young and idealist to reflective and questioning women who have poured their true selves into music that is both outward looking and extremely vulnerable. You have never once felt that Adwaith have been anything other than honest with their audience so when we hear that they feel they have so much to say that they have to release a double album then, well, I feel they have earned our trust.
The first thing that grabs you when listening to Solas is how musically diverse it is. You still recognise it as Adwaith however this time there are so many more hidden depths and songwriting twists and turns. The band let that spiky post-punk energy that they have had from day one serve as a scaffolding for which they can paint far more intricate sonic paintings than ever before so now we are treated to pop songs dipped in Arabic rhythms, electro stompers drawn from 70s New York and the alt-synth of Adwaith influencers Datblygu.
Opener Paned (Planet) is a sonic firework that fires the album off at a breathtaking pace with sounds clashing invoking a duality of chaos mixed with serenity. As album openers go this is up there with the best because within its running time you get hints at where the rest of Solas is going. It contains a myriad of geographical influences all pulled together wonderfully by the bands long-term producer Steffan Pringle.
There are moments of jaw-dropping emotional beauty scattered throughout the album, whether that be on the naked vulnerability of Tristwch (Sadness) or the Gothic anger of Gorllewin Pell (Far East) which is a song that finds the group desperately trying to get back to the beauty of West Wales and out of the psychic chaos of a city. The true heart of the album however lives within the title track itself. Solas shares some of its elements with Skinty Fia-era Fontaines DC but where the Irish band flirt with naked emotions, Adwaith dive straight in with a song that is at once achingly beautiful, full of energy that would get a crowd jumping yet absolutely raw with intensity. The song also serves as a reminder of what a wonderful voice lead singer Hollie Singer has (a fact that is proven repeatedly throughout the whole album) with the chorus especially highlighting this with its soul-piercing beauty.
Solas feels like an album full of push and pull, full of conflicting emotions and confused mental states yet it never once feels muddled or lacking in focus. Considering it was recorded in multiple studios around the world and its length, Solas never feels confused or without direction. Its contradictions are its strength and Adwaith have never sounded so sure of what they want to achieve and this is apparent in their playing, arrangements and lyrical themes. Where their last album Bato Mato found them looking outwards, Solas finds the trio taking all that they have learned and turning it onto themselves making this album both an expression of their internal selves and a statement on what they see happening in the world. Sonically, Solas is the offspring of The Cure’s Disintegration with which it shares a sense of pop music with unease flowing underneath it where if you listen closely you will find not all is what it seems, British guitar-rock with worldly foundations, power meshed with vulnerability.
This is the album that cements Adwaith as one of the most important bands (not only Welsh which many will try to pigeonhole them in) currently out there. Solas is Adwaith’s OK Computer, their Hounds of Love, their classic and fans new and old alike will enjoy every second of it.
Adwaith socials: Facebook | Instagram | Website
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Review written by Simon Tucker
See also Adwaith’s My Life In 10 Songs feature, where band members Heledd, Hollie and Gwenllian give 30 wonderfully eclectic selection of songs covering rap, folk, electronic and pop plus .
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