The Cadences of Others is the third full length LP by the Dublin folk duo We Cut Corners. After having met in college, John Duigran and Conall O’Breachain returned to their old stomping grounds to record their new album in a church on campus.
“We recorded our first two records in conventional studios with established engineer-producers like Jimmy Eadie and Tommy Mcglaughlin. We wanted to do something different — something that excited and inspired us. We wanted to record in a space in which accidents could happen and in a building whose sonic qualities could become part of the fabric of the album,” the band said.
The Cadences of Others is a perfect title, too. Each song is rich with a gentle and hypnotic rhythm, complete with sweeping orchestras on some and a more upbeat tempo on others. The album rises and falls throughout its entirely seamlessly, like a the cadence of something or someone familiar and comfortable.
Lyrically, The Cadences of Others is a masterpiece. There’s wordplay and phrases grouped together in a way that never occurred to me belongs in a song. But now that I’ve heard them, I can’t get them out of my head. Such as the bookended use of the word “kindness” in the album’s second track “On Avoiding People”: “Heaven forbid, we might have to depend on the kindness of strangers and the absence of light,” and then, seconds later, “when I killed you with my kindness and I blind you with my blindness.” Or the often repeated “I was a reckless child, now I’m a childless wreck” from “Reluctant Recluse.” Get lost in the sweet-sounding instrumentals, but it’s the poetry of this album that stands out the most, and will probably be the reason The Cadences of Others is at the top of my list for favorite album of the year.
The album was mastered by Josh Bonati, and features contributions from Villagers’ Conor O’Brien on bass and members of Booka Brass and the Fratres String Quintet.
The album is available to buy on www.thedelphilabel.com. We Cut Corners have two more live shows for November, the 18th at Roisin Dubh, Galway, and the 19th at Button Factory, Dublin.
