Life rarely goes in a straight line from point A to point B. Often a series of moments come together taking one down a crooked road to a place they never saw coming. Which could explain why over the course of ten years, only now are Bandits on the Run releasing their second album. A handful of singles and EPs have come out along the way to Rough Magic, an album filled with intimacy, exuberance and the sheer love of creating music.
While pathways may not be straight, focusing on the sounds of Adrian Blake Enscoe’s guitar and suitcase drum, Sydney Shepard’s cello and bass, plus Regina Strayhorn’s accordion only tells half the story. The blending of their voices seeks a level of auditory perfection on a par with the likes of The Roches, various aggregations of Thompson’s and I’m With Her. That kind of company sets a high bar.
The standard gets set early with ‘Am I Your Mirror’. Less a song than a plea, Strayhorn explores the tension coming from having a strong sense of identity yet trying to commit to another human being. Set to a framework of guitar augmented by cello, the trio explores the pain that comes from not knowing who’s in charge. The confusion gets laid out most clearly, “I’m holding you but you’re not holding me/ I want to come back to my body/ It’s hard when you’re family.”
The band can transform something simple, like the sound of “ohs” on ‘Woods Alone at Night’ into something quite magical, telling a simple tale of a woman traversing the woods on her own. Stripping things back to little more than a guitar and a bass, ‘lostlostlost’ displays an air of futility and desperation that asks the simple question of where am I now? “Can I climb up to see the way I have come/ And make it out alive/ Make out alive/ Climbing from my life/ But there’s no ladder.” Yet even in the desperation, hope remains nearby.
Wonderfully and simply, they work their magic. ‘Tilted Universe’ at turns, rocks beyond belief, while at other moments it feels like a hootenanny. Over two versions, ‘May This Love’ becomes a chameleon, moving from a simple piano cassette version to a slightly rowdier party version complete with revellers.
In an album filled with magical moments, ‘Rough Magic’ offers up the qualities that make this album exceptional. Spelling out a philosophy that at its heart is incredibly simple, life is about taking the time to breathe. For five minutes, accompanied by a single guitar, these three singers take centre stage. Letting their voices work wonders, they soar and sail. The message is about spending time in the moment. “In the silence there is truth/ You can find there what is real to you/ Nothing to own, nothing to lose/ Just your rough magic shining through.”
Calling this album Rough Magic may be going slightly against the grain. There is nothing rough about what Bandits on the Run have done here. They have released an album that follows a road all their own. And the only magic here is how good it truly is.