Rosewood Album

12 Original Studio recorded English Folk Rock songs, from The Last Kingdom, to 10 Shillings a week, also available on Amazon and Spotify.

Artist:Graffiti
Album: Rosewood
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 12
Website: https://www.nauticalgraffiti.com/

"Rosewood" is the second album from loose Dorset record collective Graffiti, aka Nautical Graffiti if you're searching for them online, centred around singer-songwriter Will Adams and follows on the heels of debut, "Nautical Graffiti". Simon Swarbrick, Lee MacKenzie and Lucy Watkins make the transition from that previous cut and are joined by Ken Watkins, Eszter Lovas, Ken Watkins and Paul Sundt for the new album, giving it a richer and fuller sound.

As with its predecessor, "Rosewood" draws on England's rich history to provide most of the inspiration and narrative, though unlike that predecessor this album makes many a foray inland as well as cover a greater historical range, the opener "The Last Kingdom", heading back to the Viking invasion and Danegeld, making "Guy Fawkes" seem comparatively modern.

Graffiti are primarily a recording unit, drawing on musicians from different projects, building up the songs and arrangements around a studio environment, rather than testing them on the road, which to be fair is something that has impacted mist bands over the last eighteen months, it has by no means done them a disservice, "Rosewood" is a very cohesive album that is played with plenty of verve and passion, something that is very much fuelled by the interests of those within the band, I would go as far as to say there is a live feel to this album that is missing from a lot of its contemporaries.

Without a doubt "Rosewood" overlaps into areas that are often considered the prevail of prog rock, the title track clocking in at just over seven minutes long, but feels much shorter, no doubt a sign of its quality. In fact despite clocking up nearly an hour the whole album feels a little short, definitely leaves you wanting more.

Were they a touring outfit, you could see Graffiti ranked up there with the likes of the Gigspanner Big Band of the Phil Beer Band, something we can dream about, what is hard and solid fact is that "Rosewood" is a great studio album that flows with quality and an imperative to suggest you should check it out.

Neil King