Single Review: The Library Trust – Build Your Own Slow Globe EP [Static Caravan]

library trust
We went to the “launch” party for this EP at The Britons Protection back in July and now, after an unexplained three month delay, the record is finally in the shops on trusty old 7″ vinyl. The Library Trust is Lancastrian singer/songwriter Robert Edwards, a man who has realised that calling himself “Robert Edwards” would see himself lumped in with the current morass of male singer/songwriters by lazy journalists everywhere. The Library Trust is a very apt moniker if the quiet, introspective musing of his debut EP are anything to go by.

Opener “Eveline” clocks in at barely a minute but is a great introduction for the rest of the EP with Edwards’ fragile voice floating forlornly over a spare acoustic backing. “A Shove In The Mouth” builds from a simple acoustic strum, adding slide guitar, cello and a smattering of snare to produce an eerily intense backing to the EP’s stand out track.

Though “Harbour” and “Beyond Blue” on Side B offer no further surprises musically, it’s Edwards’ songwriting prowess that grabs the attention. The lyrical themes are familiar ones of unrequited love, loss and depression but there’s a refreshing simplicity in the melodies which draws you in and leaves you wanting more. The lo-fi production values – it sounds like a home recording with chairs creaking and all sorts in the background – lend the songs an intimacy akin to that of the Britons Protection gig: it’s like The Library Trust are playing in your front room. An excellent debut which gets better and better the more you listen to it.

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