An assured second album of beauty and resilience.
Creeping Thyme is Sorrel Nation’s second album. It’s also a resilient, woody plant that, in British folklore, was often used as a sign of courage in a battle and a gateway to the realm of the fairies. The resilience and magical nature of the plant are reflected in both the lyrics and music of the nine songs that make up this record, as is Nation’s peripatetic lifestyle in her campervan, her love of nature and home.
Opener Chaos Town immediately draws attention to Nation’s extraordinary vocal range before settling down into a tale of the frenetic nature of urban living. The track is elevated by Caelia Luniss’s fiddle lines, which are reminiscent of Steve Wickham’s playing on early Waterboys records, and some ghostly noises courtesy of bass player Hollie Garwood, who contributes “musical saw.” Both of these provide emotional intensity and a strong melodic counterpoint to Nation’s vocal.
Nation has said of this album that she was aiming for a rootsy, folky, Americana sound, which has certainly been achieved, including on the album’s title track, Creeping Thyme. It’s a song that emphasises the need for strength and that both the plant and life are “creeping along.” It also features some passionate and soaring fiddle playing. Ran Johnny Ran is a more downbeat number, with its opening lines “It feels like you died tonight, It feels like you’re gone from my life.” It’s a deeply personal song for the singer as she reflects on someone close to her who’s lost their way in life and the grief this brings to her. With its beautiful close harmonies, it sounds like an old-time country song. Tell Me You Love Me features just Nation’s voice and guitar. It appears in the middle of the album and acts as an interlude, but it’s a pause in proceedings that doesn’t quite work, somehow interrupting the record’s momentum.
Nation has included her version of the Sandy Denny classic Who Knows Where the Time Goes. She first performed it in 2022 on a small stage at Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Festival, which is where she “truly fell in love with the song.” It’s been sung by everyone from Nina Simone to Lonnie Donegan. This interpretation adds something new. It’s fuller in sound than Denny’s original 1967 demo, and it lacks the drums of the fully produced version that appears on Fairport Convention’s Unhalfbricking; Theo Holder’s cello playing and Nation’s voice combine to make this version stand comfortably among the finest interpretations of the song in recent years.
When the Winter Breaks is a song about moving forward from difficult times as Nation finds “the pieces of my heart across the floor.” It’s a song of hope as Nation feels the “rays of sunlight on her face.” The understated arrangement allows the emotional weight of the lyrics to emerge naturally. The singer has admitted in interviews to being anxious about this release. Because her debut album, Lost En Route, had received so much positive feedback, she was “a little nervous about where to start with album two.” She had no need to worry. It’s an album produced with passion, where all the musicians seem to naturally gel. Creeping Thyme confirms Sorrel Nation has one of the most distinctive emerging voices in contemporary folk and Americana, combining traditional influences with songs that feel rooted in both place and personal experience.
Related