{"id":162,"date":"2018-02-14T13:30:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T13:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-will-varley-spirit-of-minnie\/"},"modified":"2018-06-12T22:16:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T21:16:50","slug":"review-will-varley-spirit-of-minnie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-will-varley-spirit-of-minnie\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Will Varley &#8211; Spirit Of Minnie"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so6_r69_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>Having supported the likes of Billy Bragg and The Proclaimers, played a sold-out a headline show at London\u2019s Union Chapel and made numerous appearances at 2000 Trees, it\u2019s safe to say that <b>Will Varley<\/b>\u2019s tenacity for making music since his teens has been paying off well in recent years. When the Kingston Upon Thames based folk artist was signed to Xtra Mile records in 2015, it\u2019s unsurprising that his previous albums <i>\u2018Postcards From Ursa Minor\u2019<\/i> and <i>&#8216;Kingsdown Sundown\u2019<\/i> were compared to Frank Turner\u2019s material. This wasn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing, however, but with <i>\u2018Spirit Of Mine\u2019<\/i> he has been able to veer away from this comparison as he continues to mature as a storyteller, alongside a full backing band that greatly enhances his fifth LP.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s the warm keyboard section on <i>\u2018Screenplay\u2019<\/i>, the subtle drum fills of opener <i>\u2018All Those Stars\u2019<\/i> or the gorgeous violin on <i>\u2018The Postman\u2019<\/i>, <b>Varley<\/b> has ensured that each blissful folk anthem sounds more instrumentally grandiose than the last.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>Outside the backing repertoire, <b>Varley<\/b> still manages to sound visceral and endearing as ever on the stripped back <i>\u2018Breaking The Bread\u2019<\/i>. Whilst it has many of the typical romantic folk tropes, lines such as <i>\u201cSo as this interlude is short, I will state my intent, marry me beneath the trees\u201d<\/i> prevent it from becoming a clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u2018Let It Slide\u2019<\/i> in comparison is a tale of melancholy stirred from heavy drinking to escape the pain of an absent lover. It\u2019s slow and feels weighed down by misery. Fittingly enough it almost sounds like a song from Matt Eliott\u2019s <i>&#8216;Drinking Songs\u2019<\/i>, with its heavy use of downtrodden violin and it\u2019s iconic chorus <i>\u201cLet it roll, let it roll, let it slide out of control.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Whilst the possibilities for Varley\u2019s future songwriting with an accompanying band are endless, the now nine brilliant tracks on <i>\u2018Spirit Of Minnie\u2019<\/i> create a captivating story that\u2019s worth your time and energy listening to.<\/p>\n<p>4\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Spirit Of Mine\u2019<\/i> by <b>Will Varley<\/b> is out now on <b>Xtra Mlie Recordings<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Will Varley<\/b> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.willvarley.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/willvarleymusic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WillVarleyMusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/willvarleymusic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ashwin Bhandari (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GIVEUPOX17\" \/a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having supported the likes of Billy Bragg and The Proclaimers, played a sold-out a headline show at London\u2019s Union Chapel and made numerous appearances at 2000 Trees, it\u2019s safe to say that Will Varley\u2019s tenacity for making music since his teens has been paying off well in recent years. When the Kingston Upon Thames based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":59955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[130,129,112],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-spirit-of-minnie","tag-will-varley","tag-xtra-mile-recordings"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Will Varley - Spirit Of Minnie - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Having supported the likes of Billy Bragg and The Proclaimers, played a sold-out a headline show at London\u2019s Union Chapel and made numerous appearances at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Will Varley - 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