“The city went dark / I walk down empty streets until I stopped / And stared in disbelief / At how I’ve come so far / And still don’t know what I believe in.”
Sheilagh McNab is best known to the Great Dark Wonder team as folk-pop singer-songwriter SHEAL, her debut EP “Courage Again” (reviewed by GDW in February 2022) marking her out as a definite artist to watch.
This time around, it’s the arrival of a teaser from SHEAL’s upcoming “Golden Hours” EP that’s turning our heads, and I’m happy that this one landed in my lap. Released just yesterday, “The End” is really a song about new beginnings, of the letting go needed to embrace the new and hopefully exciting opportunities, fingers crossed. That’s not to say it’s necessarily those qualities that are readily apparent in the sounds emanating from the speakers.
“The End” we ‘hear’ is a mellow, free-flowing gentle affair that quietly pulls you in its jaunty bassline and lets you softly drift in its slipstream, in a sonic daydream fashion. Musically, a definite yet slightly muted consistent drumbeat provides the backbone that allows the sprinkling of guitar and ethereal piano to fully shine, over which SHEAL’s honey drenched vocals seem to effortlessly glide.
It certainly feels like this composition comes from a place of someone who has reached a level of contentment, despite alluding lyrically to darker times of what surely seem to be a romantic break up: “The darkest of nights / Brings a morning bright / Like sunlight on the water / So don’t be afraid … of the end.”
Helmed in Toronto by the producer duo of Gavin Gardiner (The Wooden Sky) and “Champagne” James Robertson (Lindi Ortega) – who I recall teamed up recently with their band MOONRIIVR – “The End” offers a tantalizing early insight into what lies ahead with “Golden Hours” later in the coming fall. “The track is definitely one of my favourites on this upcoming album,” says SHEAL. “It’s about letting go of the things that no longer serve you, in order to make space for something new.”
I personally am looking forward to what the future holds for SHEAL – and encourage you to give this track a listen, and hopefully you’ll have the same anticipation too.
Photo Credit: Artist Website
Music has been a lifelong passion, a journey that as a child embraced the late 60's counter culture and has lasted until the present day. Despite trying to play guitar for the best part of 45 years, to his own frustration, never much beyond the first four bars of “Stairway to Heaven.” A self-confessed vinyl junkie, his other interests include collecting music memorabilia, old Muhammad Ali fight programs, and watching film. He lives alone in Nottingham (England) and still uses the term “Groovy” - these two facts may be intrinsically connected.
