John Boden – ‘Songs From The Floodplain’ Album Review

John Boden has been on the folk scene for some time as part of the Bellowhead big band, and his traditional-folk collaboration with Spiers (Spiers and Boden) but here he steps out on his own to create and album of staggering depth and emotion. Ambitious and far form work-shy, Boden has crafted a concept album about the end of the world without sounding corny or clichéd. 

Playing all the instruments himself, Boden creates a world steeped in folk and traditional influences while managing to sound contemporary, thanks to a Stirling production job. The songs themselves are set in an age sometime in the future with the world buried in industrial waste and burned out factories. Despite this downbeat setting, Boden has the uncanny ability (mush like the Levellers) to create lush and rousing songs to compliment the weighty subject matter. ‘Going down to the wasteland’ has a fair stomp to it which gets the feet tapping, while ‘Days gone by’ recalls a soldier’s marching anthem from days gone by with its rhythmically strummed guitar and airy accordion. Meanwhile ‘Penny for the preacher’ hints at the darker side of the album with its hefty bass and chanted vocals lost in a haze of reverb. ‘Beating the bounds’ offers a counterpoint to ‘Penny’s’ darkness, and is closer to a traditional folk dance (indeed its hard not to move to such a heart warming tune) with it’s bouncing rhythm and squeeze-box accompaniment. ‘When the walls come tumbling down’ is a beautiful lament filled with unusual instruments and an intelligent sense of dynamics while ‘Don’t wake me up ‘till tomorrow’ is far more emotive than Green day’s similarly-themed ‘Wake me up when September ends’. 

This is clearly not an album for everyone, but for those whose imagination has been captured by the recent rise in folk-metal from bands such as Korpiklanni, Eluveitie or Turisas may wish to indulge in the origins of such music produced by a truly talented young musician. Packaged in a deluxe-style digi-book with plenty of photos and lyrics, this is a beautifully crafted album from the art-work to the songs and it would serve as a perfect introduction to the world of folk which has had such an influence on European metal acts from Ulver to Opeth. Intriguing and filled with a sense of hope amidst the despair, this is a highly recommended album from a unique artist.