Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is no secret that the narrative of the world has been dominated, almost completely up until recent times, by those who see through the male gaze. Such a blinkered view is one that cannot and must not persist, that we must ensure our thinking continues to embrace the sound, the imagination, the strength and presence of the feminine, of the anchor they supply when the male scripture goes horribly and desperately wrong, of the foresight and inspiration to lead when the nation calls for a different kind of approach to which the male ego cannot cope with.
To The Awe of womanhood we owe our hearts and our soul, and whilst to draw on the narrative of the seven ages of woman as a direct approach by an musician is seen as daring, even brave, because it still somehow suggests an deviation that made the frankly bizarre proclamation of Victorian machoistic writers and scholars who shared their 19th Century versions of toxic masculinity and suggest that the inversion of women would bring down the downfall of society, quite simply redundant and as ridiculous as it sounds, and should be seen as truth revealed, bold but not meekly offering a counter view.
To The Awe is not just bold, it is magnificent, a tribute but also one of proclamation in its own right, and one carried with certainty and pleasure by the superb Rachel Newton, and one that follows on with succinct drive from her earlier recordings which have highlighted the Scottish singer and harpist as one of the greats of our time.
It is in the framing of women at the centre of the narrative that makes tracks such as the insightful opening of The Early Morning, the honest pain that weaves itself through We Will Listen, Maid By The Shore, Two Sisters, the defining resonance of age in Would You Be Young Again and the beauty and perhaps underlying fear in To My Daughter, that Rachel Newton once more provides a proud statement of her work, of her craft, of her country, but most of all the celebration of all that is woman.
Awe, perhaps, veneration and worship most certainly, for Rachel Newton such is the meaning of female power and responsibility; one not to be taken lightly, one to be understood as vital if we are to continue striding forward.
Rachel Newton releases To The Awe on November 6th via Shadowside Records.
Ian D. Hall