Music / Premieres
Premiere:
Iain T. McKelvey - Revolutions
Words by Francis Tait
Thursday 30th September, 2021
We’re thrilled today to be able to premiere Revolutions, the debut EP from Cadigal-Wangal based singer-songwriter Iain T. McKelvey - nineteen minutes of heart-on-sleeve folk that you can sink into like a bath.
Recorded in his home studio from within the first Sydney lockdown of 2020, Iain T. McKelvey’s Revolutions is a collection of five 60’s folk inspired heartstring-tuggers that revolve around the sort of wisdom and heart that the genre was built upon. Mixed and mastered by Ryan K Brennan (Phantastic Ferniture, Julia Jacklin) and Wade Keighran (Polish Club, Wolf & Cub), Revolutions is a lush, captivating listen that utilises little more than Iain’s captivating vocal style and an intimate solo guitar to invite you into his world.

Stepping away from his band The Midnight Tangos, Revolutions is testament to the calibre of Iain T. McKelvey’s songwriting. Whether it’s via the sparse acoustic guitar of sunny EP opener ‘Taybank’ and the solemn ‘Happiness Antichrist’, or the shimmering electric guitar that echos that of Jeff Buckley that drives the following tracks, Iain’s emotive vocals and thoughtful, idiosyncratic lyricism will have you hanging onto every word.

While it must be something of a disappointment that Iain’s usual backing band The Midnight Tangos couldn’t make an appearance on this release due to the pandemic, their influence is still felt on the EP, particularly with the fuller band sound of the final track ‘Writer’s Lament’, which is elevated by a stomping groove while dark tangles of guitar ebb and flow around Iain’s most commanding delivery yet. However, the closing track’s strength doesn’t come from the fact that it reveals what was missing from the previous songs - instead, the entire listen cleverly juxtaposes the alluring intimacy of Iain’s songwriting smarts while putting into perspective how stirring his music can be at full tilt.

Revolutions is out everywhere today via Evening Records