New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Vagaband return with Beautiful World, out March 3rd on Eggsong Records. Beautiful World comes four-plus years after the release of the dark "full bodied and city sullied dramas" (Americana UK) of 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' to shine some light in these troubled times.
The East Anglian sextet are at the forefront of the region's vibrant roots music scene, picking up praise for their incendiary live shows and soulful song writing. Just like the voices of lead singers Jose McGill (think oak-aged whiskey) and Yve Mary B (mountain spring water), Beautiful World is an album of contrasts. From the back-porch duet of opener 'I'm Not For You' through to wide-screen epic closer 'Into the Blue', the band move from small moments of domestic drama to cosmic country and everything in between. Classic 70s rock from both sides of the Atlantic rubs up against far older, and also more contemporary, sounds to create something at once familiar and yet of their own making.
A collection of stories, Beautiful World tells of depression, break-ups, and even murder on their southern-gothic take on folk standard 'The Unquiet Grave', and yet the sheer rush of joy on cuts 'Avalon', 'Desdemona' (both channelling Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac) and the Southern rock-meets-White Album of lead single 'Into the Blue' remind us that yes, perhaps it is a Beautiful World after all.
Beautiful World is available March 3rd.
The debut album takes the listener from ragtime, through the horn-driven soundtrack of New Orleans and on to the open landscape of reflective Americana. There is however an underlying Britishness to the sound.
Medicine For The Soul 2014 CD / gate-fold vinyl / download Optimism gives way to cinematic arrangements telling dark tales inhabited by drunks, dead-end seaside towns and troubled souls. The title track is an ode to late Texan songwriter Townes Van Zandt.
Something Wicked This Way Comes 2018 CD / download
A gritty soulful feel that retains a British pride. Think Americana meets 'The White Album'.
Ten Bells Waltz - The Vagaband Youth Orchestra Live 2019 CD / download
This Arts Council-funded project opens with a short Vagaband-only set, followed by an orchestral collaborative
performance of eight reworked originals, cherry-picked from the band's three studio albums.
White Noise - EP 2021 / digital.
A fresh comment on information overload from social media that's overpopulating our senses and dividing opinions.
Media Quotes for SOMETHING WICKED.. 'MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL' & 'TOWN &COUNTRY'
unrestrained and inventive...this album goes places that trad-Americana never thought to reach and on the way it will pull a wider audience under its spell."- FolkWords
"Stunning" - Q Magazine
"Breathtaking… haunting" - Top40-Charts.com
"Masterly" - Americana UK
Richly textured - could have emerged from Muscle Shoals Studio...Real feeling **** R2
'An album of the year contender' American
Roots UK
https://www.thevagaband.co.uk/
