What could be better than to be Frances Luke Accord (Nicholas Gunty and Brian Powers) and gaining routine comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel for their sweetly blended vocals? Their music certainly draws on that earlier duo’s sometime wistful strain, and on ‘In My Life‘ there even seems to be some subtle nods to that previous pairings’ oeuvre: and that photo surely harkens back to a form of music beloved by generations of knitwear sporting studenty types. And what, after all, is wrong with that?
To return to our opening theme though – what could be better might be to be a fledgling band that were mentored by Darlingside. And maybe even better would be to then have Darlingside help out on a song – and that is what we find right here. ‘In My Life‘ is taken from Frances Luke Accord’s new album ‘Safe in Sound‘ which will be released on February 9th 2023. It’s a song that takes an accounting of the ups and downs of life, and takes more note of the marvellous “Oh I’ve seen the sun go down / And the moon on the rise / I saw it all once” and concludes, it seems, that a life well lived is the route to the reconciling to the last inevitability “Lay me down in the snow / Where the sparrow might go / Where the hollow oaks fold.” It’s a gentle thing of layered harmonies and is quiet beautiful.
