Fred Abbott is joined by a band of vocalists for his second post-Noah And The Whale “solo” album.
As first-out-of-the-gate with his 2015 solo album Serious Poke, following the split of NATW, Abbott let loose with the classic rock riffs and infectious hooks that, in hindsight, made his influence apparent on the later NATW material.
In the intervening years Abbott has been paying the bills as jobbing producer, writer and session player working with a string of upcoming and established artists including Gabriella Cilmi, Tom Chaplin (Keane), Jamie Lawson, Cassyette, Charlotte OC, Kawala, Megan McKenna and more.
Shining Under The Soot finds Abbott returning to the music he loves most. A sound that would ideally have been captured live with a 10-piece band – complete with horn section, backing singers and whirling Leslie cabs, in Muscle Shoals or Sunset Sound – but it was largely recorded piecemeal in a South London windowless basement, below an Eritrean cafe. Despite the practicalities, all the instruments are real – guitars recorded through cranked up valve amps, a Hammond Organ through a roaring Leslie, every drum skin or cymbal hit with sticks. No piano samples or amp sim plugins in sight. Everything pushed air.
So why “The Wild Unknown”? With a day job answering to the creative demands of other artists this was a record made for pure pleasure and the only person to please was Abbott himself. Fred demoed the songs with his own vocals. “Listening to the demos I thought “how could this be better?””, says Abbott “What would be more fun? The one thing that could be better is the vocals and I know lots of good singers.”
Having absorbed the “History of the Eagles” documentary, Abbott knew that as a band of singers they often all recorded lead vocal on songs and would then pick the best-suited performance for each – a vocal shoot-out. So that’s what he did.
Steve Llewellyn (Orphan Colours, Ahab), Dave Burn (The Marriage, Ahab), Tom Figgins and Rich Evans all sang lead vocals on every song, in addition to harmonies. Spoiled for choice, Abbott then picked the performance or sound he thought best suited each song. Far from leading to an inconsistent album, the variety ended up adding to the appeal of the record. Despite only singing lead vocals on one track, Fred Abbott’s fingerprints are all over this album as producer and multi-instrumentalist, although he did have some help from a team that includes some of the country’s top session musicians, Grammy-nominated producer Will Hicks and Grammy-winning mastering engineer Reuben Cohen.
As on Serious Poke Abbott is not afraid to wear his love of Petty, Springsteen et al on his sleeve; but this is no pastiche album. It aspires to be a “classic rock” record in the truest sense. Yes, every track has a guitar (or sax) solo, but it’s certainly no noodling prog odyssey. The songwriting always comes first – infectious melodic hooks and thoughtful lyrical themes. It may have taken him 8 years between albums, but with Shining Under The Soot Abbott has delivered a record with a quality and depth that repays repeated listens.
