The band is a Northern Ireland powerhouse, with two writing partners, AJ Gilmore and Steve Simms who've been at it for a long time, on and off, through years of stepping away and stepping back in. This has a history. You can hear two people who know what they want to say and what's the best way to say it.
This one is musically active. The guitars have a consistent drive, the rhythm section remains locked, and the voice is on top, not just in front, and tells the story. Nothing feels showy. All of the arrangement is necessary for the song. The vocal is the one thing that sticks with you for the longest. There's weight and wear to it, it's the tone of one who has lived a bit of life. It's not trying to sound world weary. It just feels that way.
Excuses are not the words that don't waste time. They follow the man who recaps all the opportunities he missed and asks how much of that was really bad luck? This is an honest, unflinching examination of the difference between who we're supposed to be and who we are, without turning into a place of unhappiness for the sake of unhappiness.
The difference with Rumour Den is that it's the music that's there to support the story, not the story that's there to support the music. Not searching for one particular sound for each release. They mould each song to the shape it must take, and that's a skill that is unusual. It takes confidence to let the song lead and not the band's style.
I listened to this one over and over again and each time it offered me something to appreciate. Chapter & Verse is a song that invites you to consider your own decisions, not theirs. Rumour Den have created something good and meaningful and it deserves to be appreciated.
