Will Kemp doesn't quite know how to review Withered Hand's album Good News

There are about fifteen different ways I could have approached this review. Good News is a record so crammed full of oddities and things that shouldn’t work but do that it’s very hard to pin down exactly why its as good as it is.

I could have focused on how much great stuff is going on around Edinburgh these days. Dan Willson and his revolving cast of backup musicians are based here and while there aren’t many bands in the city that are this good that’s more of comment on the quality of Good News than anything else. Ramshackle indie-folk is very easy to do badly and Withered Hand seem to dodge all the obvious pitfalls without ever seeming like they’re trying.   

Equally, I could have gone for one of those “it’s strange how the dude having a really weird voice makes his singing way more interesting than it would have been otherwise” pieces. Or looked at the overly tight repetition in the rhyme schemes and how that should have been really annoying.   

Even higher up the “should be really bloody annoying” scale we have the anti-folk influence that pops up all over the record. I know some people like anti-folk, god knows why, but the stuff puts my teeth on edge. It’s cutesy for the sake of cutesy and smug for no good reason. Still, it works here.   

And of course there’s the religion thing. You know, I can almost hear readers inhaling sharply, ready to dismiss the album out of hand. Well yes, the lyrics cover Christianity. A lot. Yes, there are only like three albums that deal with religion from the perspective of genuine belief and don’t suck really hard. Yes, this is one of them. The religion is context, not the message. There’s plenty of talk about wanking and transparent bikinis if that helps?   

Good News shouldn’t be anywhere near as great as it is. It doesn’t make any sense. Maybe it’s the sheer quality of the lyrics, the sweetness and crassness sparking off each other. Maybe it’s just that Dan Willson is freakishly talented.