Single review: THE AMBER QUILLS – Chords And Candles

Empreint Cordialle [Release date 07.07.22]

Prodigious musician Michael Burdett, leader of The Little Death Orchestra, formed The Amber Quills in 1982. The tapes of the band’s recordings were thought to have been destroyed by flood, but Burdett has had them restored recently, thanks to developments in digital technology.

Between times he’s made a successful career out of writing numerous TV themes, as well as many original scores for the world of corporate advertising. He knows his way around the music business.

‘Chords And Candles’ is the first of the restored tracks to be released.

There are welcome parallels with Divine Comedy and Pulp here. The musically upbeat song is constructed around sweet harmonies, light touch arrangement, tasteful backing vocals and keyboard orchestration.

This all serves to mask Burdett’s socially acerbic lyrics, laced with cynicism and insiders’ insight. Clearly, he’d already got the measure of the music biz, or at least the establishment figures who run it.

In a nice marketing touch, on the release date, 78 rare white label copies of the 12” vinyl version (in itself limited to a thousand) will be placed in Charity Shops in all 4 countries of the UK.

Get ready. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)