In the video for Brown Horse’s latest single, the band is stranded in the tour van before they work together to tune up the van and get back on the road. It’s a light-hearted visual inspired by Springsteen’s video for I’m on Fire, in which he played the part of a mechanic. However, this is a more low-key affair, filmed by Kingsley Palmer on a grey, miserable day on the outskirts of Cromer in Norfolk. Comeback Loading is another excellent Black Horse release, full of swirling, twisting pedal steel from Emma Tovell, building layers of guitar from Nyle Holihan and vocalist Patrick Turner, and extra texture from Rowan Braham’s accordion. Neve Cariad’s backing combines with Turner’s lead singing, their voices becoming an understated, ethereal blend. Lyrically, Turner’s words feel like an authentic conversation between old friends who’ve lost touch; easy to associate with and absorbingly real: “Haven’t heard from you // No, it’s been these last five years // But I know what you’ve been going through // Cos my sister still speaks to your cousin sometimes // I don’t know how much of it is true // But I guess it’s mostly right.”
Songwriter Turner explains the ideas behind Comeback Loading: “With this song, I was trying to connect the kind of dumb, ironic t-shirt slogans you’d see everywhere when I was growing up to something a bit more real: memory, going back home, hearing about the things childhood friends had been dealing with since you last spoke to them, that sort of thing. The chorus wraps all that up in a couple of Springsteen references.”
Brown Horse’s brand new album, Total Dive, is the band’s third album in as many years. All four members of the band, Patrick Turner, Nyle Holihan, Emma Tovell and Rowan Braham, have contributed songs that cover a wide range of intriguing subjects, covering the beauty and tragedy in everyday life, from vending machines to old friends, a road-killed fox to pink, winter skies. There’s an increasing confidence in both Brown Horse’s songwriting and their complete performances. This might just be their best album yet.
