Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Mark Mulholland

The Cactus and the Dragon

Label: Cannery Row Release Date: 06/02/2012

81910
DanLucas86 by Dan Lucas February 1st, 2012

I sat down to write this review of Mark Mulholland’s new album at around midday today; it is now 18:55. The problem I’m having with writing this preamble is that I’m about to start discussing a twenty-first century indie-folk singer, a description that will no doubt bring forth memories of the likes of Camera Obscura and Scottish contemporaries Belle & Sebastian: in other words, twee farts of nothing that should by rights have you running for the nearest rusty scalpel with which to remove your own ears. But then I’d quite like you to keep reading this, so please disperse said images from your mind and give this album a chance.

Mulholland’s second record The Cactus and the Dragon may have the same roots in American folk pop as his contemporaries, but that’s where the similarities end. This is going back to the darker side of folk; scratched and discordant vocals – some his, some guest – that echoes Waits and Dylan (albeit with perhaps slightly more polished edges), an acoustic guitar that sounds surprisingly ominous... songs that aren’t in the key of C! For an album recorded in Berlin by a Scottish troubadour who has spend as much time wandering Europe as Mulholland, The Cactus and the Dragon has a surprisingly pungent scent of Americana.

This may not have the same kind of wretched desperation of Rain Dogs or the doom and dread of I’m Your Man, but even at this album’s lightest moments there’s a definite sadness: ‘Haunted Feeling’ intertwines soft guitars and an accordion beautifully, but talks of “reaching out for things that are gone, and they won’t come back’, and at the other end of the scale the urgently psychedelic title track closes the album with a fraught confession that “’The bottles on the board stand like pawns in front of me”.

It’s clear from just one listen to the album that Mulholland has a range of influences and enjoys a huge number of styles; what’s impressive is his ability to draw on them and create a collection of music that is, whilst varied, undeniably his. His voice and style lay somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Mark Kozelek, although the lounge piano, drunken vocals, slide guitar and hi-hat-heavy jazz drums on highlight ‘Footsteps on the Stairs’ are perhaps closer to Wilco’s ‘Jesus Etc.’. There’s also a sense of the epic looking to burst through on a couple of tracks: ‘Floodgates’ and ‘World Spins Round’ with their searing guitar solos could easily have tipped over into self-indulgent Matt Bellamy-like wankery, but do well to rein themselves in at under four and three minutes respectively.

There’s not a lot groundbreaking here, and those bored by Springsteen and Dylan may not get a lot of enjoyment out of this (although in fairness it does take some guts to stick a Johnny Cash-like straight country song called ‘Middle Lane Driver’ on there). Nevertheless, The Cactus and the Dragon, with its shades of dark green and brown and reeking of stale coffee from a roadside diner, is a seriously impressive piece of work.

  • 8
    Dan Lucas's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees



Left-arrow

Of Montreal

Paralytic Stalks

Mobback
81734
81688

Mark Lanegan

Blues Funeral

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
MORE


    news


    The Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Vote Now

  • 103918
  • Takeover


    The Winner Takes It All

  • 50972

    Takeover


    10 Things To Not Expect Your Record Producer To...

  • 93724
  • review


    The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium

  • 4317

    review


    Sonic Youth - Nurse

  • 6044
  • feature


    New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confro...

  • 89578

    feature


    DiS meets Justice

  • 27270
  • news


    Our Independent music filled alternative to New...

  • 104374
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND