Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Storm chasers are often described as mad, often driven by an electricity we cannot fathom, see, or wish to be near, for who in their right mind would suffer nature at her most violent and unpredictable, the trail of Broken Hearts & Broken Arrows that are attached to these acrobats of the natural phenomenon, the hunters of the ephemeral but which carries the long-lasting effect on the Earth it strikes.
The sense of the spectacular has always been at the heart of Rod Picott’s work, not the show kind in which the arena thunders with the sound of accompanying fireworks, but with the enlightened and the progressive mood which creates its own fierce storm of contemplation and joy. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune are not only to be admired for their accuracy, but for the way that Rod Picott turns those paper hearts worn on the sleeves of lovers into true beating hearts of comprehension.
In what should be considered as one of Rod Picott’s finest albums to date, Paper Hearts & Broken Arrows, takes the declaration of narrative into a direction of muscle, of rippling music biceps that hold aloft the musician’s observations and prowess with extreme dedication and cause.
From the opening sentiments of Lover, and through Mona Lisa, Frankie Lee, the heartfelt ode to the memory and suffering of the boxer Sonny Liston, Valentine’s Day, Washington County, and Mark Of Your Father, Rod Picott chases down that elusive storm and captures the beauty of lightning in a bottle, one that illuminates the music and the scene alight and clarifies the presence of clouds and high, volatile winds as the relationship between listener and performer is fully explored.
Paper Hearts & Broken Arrows is an album of satisfaction, of conflict, of that rare undisguised approach to which the artist wrestles with the storm of their making, and one that, like the weary traveller finding shelter, warmth, and sustenance after surviving the howling rain and thunderstorms of life, is greeted with thanks and pleasure.
Rod Picott’s Paper Hearts & Broken Arrows is out now.
Ian D. Hall