Tinderbox: State of Play

[John (Biscuits and Gravy) Davy]

www.tinderboxacoustic.com

Tinderbox are Monique Houraghan and Dan Tucker; based in Bournemouth, they write songs together that combine Monique's high, clear and sweet singing with Dan's quite exquisite finger-picked acoustic guitar. They've gathered a fair crowd of musical friends to gently flesh out the sound of 'State of Play' but there is no doubting the starring roles here as Monique's voice flutters like a bird above the beautiful flowing melodies picked out on the guitar.

Nine songs and one instrumental make up 'State of Play' and the subject matter ranges from the intensely personal and domestic ('For You Dear Emily' celebrates the purifying joy of going home to your young child at the end of the working day) to an attempt at socio/political commentary in the title song which I have to say doesn't succeed in delving very deep. The two strands meet in 'River To The Sea' when a soldier's wife learns he won't ever return home again. These personal songs are honest and earnest, striving to express emotional truths and to avoid easy cliches. In listening to them, though, it would be easy to be distracted by the pure beauty of Monique's voice and the gentle elegance of Dan's playing.

The album centres on their two finest moments here. The instrumental, 'The Journey' caught my ear on one of these recent October days; I was in the car quite gobsmacked by the autumnal beauty I saw all around me as if the whole world was in harmony for once, and this tune fitted the mood just perfectly - gentle, lyrical and happy. 'River To The Sea' follows on from 'The Journey'; the drama of the lyric (as mentioned above) is bolstered by some strong vibrato in Monique's voice and a bit of a production number going on during the chorus as the drum comes in ominously and the echo chamber makes for an uncharacteristically big sound. I don't normally go for that sort of thing but in the context of this album it sounds really good and, in part, I think that's because overall there could be more use of background vocals or harmonies to give a contrast to Monique's high clarity. Oftentimes things sound, or look, all the better in the context of some contrast, and, for me, that's the case here.

Tinderbox's approach creates music of beauty, something delicate and gentle to offset this frantic world. I find there's a few albums in my collection that I put on to soothe me at the end of a frazzled day, and it could be that 'State of Play' becomes one of those tonics.
John Davy