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While several have done it just as well before him, Alasdair Roberts has few peers when it comes to treating these rather cruel stories with such love and care.
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On the quietly electrifying No Earthly Man, Roberts takes on eight classic murder ballads from the British Isles with dizzying results.
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Lacks the dynamism and subtlety of Farewell Sorrow.
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The only perfect choice here was to make an album full of ballads. It could have been a violent reworking of age-old texts. Unfortunately, there’s not enough violence here to fully rend and flay, just enough to bruise.
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Roberts sounds alienated, but not arrogant, like some of his labelmates often can. His vocal melodies lack warmth and pain, but I find No Earthly Man's blank stare profoundly appropriate.
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New Musical Express (NME)These sparsely arranged folk songs are hauntingly pretty. [19 Mar 2005, p.59]
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UncutA near-faultless record. [Apr 2005, p.97]
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No Earthly Man demonstrates that all the glitz and studio production techniques used in making many records aren't really necessary to craft a compelling document.
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MojoThe core remains Roberts' discomfitingly pure way with diction. [May 2005, p.109]
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Q MagazineIt's a truly haunting record populated by ghosts. [May 2005, p.116]
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A sombre, sorrowful collection.
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These songs are reminders of a time when death wasn't a distant bogeyman but a mundane reality of everyday life. Alasdair Roberts's versions are somewhat modernized, but utterly immediate.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 5
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Mixed: 0 out of 5
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Negative: 1 out of 5
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WayneBMay 21, 2005
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adamkApr 15, 2005Haunting, murderous and sometimes beautiful, this album remains still in my stereo and, try as i might, i cannot remove it. Incredible.