"Spaghetti Western with a Liverpool jangle... great surf-noir-shanty" - Chris Hawkins, BBC 6Music
After “creating magical worlds with an exhilarating jumble of Serio Leone, sea shanty and Mersey melody” (Mojo Magazine) with their debut album ‘Spring Tide’, Liverpool’s The Shipbuilders return with their second album, ‘This Blue Earth’.
Whilst staying rooted to their unique brand of "Spaghetti Western with a Liverpool jangle and surf-noir-shanty" (Chris Hawkins, 6Music), the band have expanded their sound, making room for even more influences and sensibilities, pushing their sound further into previously unchartered waters. Expanding to a five-piece with the addition of a permanent brass player, ‘This Blue Earth’ is the band, again working with producer Danny Woodward (BC Camplight, Ladytron), stretching all aspects of their sound to its outer reaches, leading to, in one album, an entire world that bears repeated exploration.
As ever, the band’s sound remains hard to pinpoint, but all human life is in here. Whether it is wild storytelling set to urgent drumbeats and sparkling guitars (95 Miles, Hills of Mexico), raucous, chaotic haunted clatters (Daydreaming, Flagpole, The River) or wondrous blue eyed melodies (Polynesia), nestled next to expansive, soaring soundscapes (On the Run, La Dolce Vita) and Merseysippi Gospel hollers (Heavy is the Weight), the album is one full of twists and turns that grabs you by the lapels from the start and does not let go.
"Liverpool's finest gypsy-surf-rock band since, well... nobody!" - Getintothis.co.uk
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Taking in inspiration from musical sources as wide as Charles Mingus, Burt Bacharach, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Tom Waits and lyrical influence from the greats of James Joyce, Hemingway and Steinbeck, ‘This Blue Earth’ is a distillation of the greatest record collection you’ve never heard and the greatest books you’ve always promised to read, all executed with an increased confidence in the studio, resulting in an album in which there is not a second wasted, and not a cliché in sight.
Speaking of the album, singer-songwriter Matthew Loughlin-Day says;
“Whereas our debut album ‘Spring Tide’ was about taking you to other worlds and realms, populated by ghosts and spectres, ‘This Blue Earth’ is very much of this Earth. The flipside to the first album, these are songs of the dustbowl, of the mountainside and of the Pacific breeze. These are the songs that fall from twisted tree branches that scratch against a heavy leaden sky; songs that are blown in with the fog along the river and songs that cling to the thick air of a sweaty basement that buzzes with the fuzz of swelling amps. These are songs of loves loved and lost and songs that soundtrack your ruminations as you gaze out across the horizon, wondering and dreaming of what lies just beyond, and all the while serving to remind you to never trust a man with a flagpole in his garden”
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Away from the studio, The Shipbuilders continue to create a universe around themselves that welcomes all. They have recently supported Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band across several UK dates whilst growing their own fanbase via ‘Club Shipwrecked’, a project that takes in touring clubnights, all day festivals (hosting artists such as Andy Bell, Bill Ryder-Jones, Stone Club and By the Sea), radio shows, podcasts and more.
At the heart of all of this is community, social justice and direct action; the band regularly play at various benefit events and picket lines in the city and regularly raise money via gigs and merchandise sales for causes such as foodbanks and Medical Aid for Palestine, ensuring that if nothing else, they are a band that practices what it preaches.
The band have played festivals such as Kendal Calling and Liverpool Sound City and received strong reviews for their previous album, including a 4* review in Mojo Magazine and received national airplay for their singles (6 Music, Soho Radio), one of which, ‘The Moon’, was declared Single of the Year by louderthanwar.com. The Shipbuilders are readying themselves for further dates across the UK in late 2024 and early 2025 as they gear up to take us all from This Blue Earth to the Great Beyond.
Come on in, the water's lovely...
