Cherbourg – The Last Chapter Of Dreaming

Cherbourg - The Last Chapter Of Dreaming

Keeping company with quality acts, such as Mumford And Sons, Jay Jay Pistolet and Laura Marling has done Cherbourg’s pedigree no harm, but does their brand of bittersweet, acoustic, folk-balladry deliver?

The debut EP, The Last Chapter Of Dreaming, from the London-based four-piece is pleasant enough, melodically strong, intimate and anthemic, reflective and optimistic. If it were a colour, it would be a brooding, rich blue, with hints of both darker and lighter shades gliding just below the surface.

The songs (about lost love, lost battles and lost friends) are all acoustic-led ballads, peppered with pretty violin figures, solid backbeats and four-part vocal harmonies. However, for all of the band’s melodic skill and gusto performances, I can’t help feeling I’ve heard this sort of thing several times before.

It struck me that Cherbourg sound a little something like Snow Patrol would sound if their lead singer were to find himself on a pirate ship for several months, having fled his friends and family in a last ditch attempt to mend a broken heart.

On his hypothetical journey, it seems as though he recruited a band of suitably hairy, folk inspired musicians/pirates, to sing along with his sea salt flavoured shanties. The fresh air, deck scrubbing and mast climbing, may have turned his voice from a tenor into a slightly deeper baritone, but it’s essentially music coming from the same place, only packaged rather differently.

Cherbourg cite Arcade Fire, Elliott Smith, Iron And Wine and Tom Waits as influences. While there are elements of all these artists in their sound, this debut EP doesn’t reach anywhere near the same levels of passion, poignancy and insight that their heroes are capable of.

The Last Chapter Of Dreaming is a solid debut and new song ‘Man’ (inexplicably omitted from the EP), which you can hear on their Myspace, demonstrates there’s plenty more songsmithery to come from this band yet.

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