This album sounds like home.
Having grown up on the north coast myself, Axis Of are a band that have the ability to immediately transport me back to another place and time.
Maybe it’s the familiar accents, with the band hailing from Portstewart, Portrush and Portballintrae. Maybe it’s their rich, evocative lyrics about standing on basalt rocks, or their plea in one of this album’s standout tracks, Beach Light, to “let the sand run through our hands”. It’s dramatic, it’s invigorating and it’s a record that lays its emotions bare.
The writing process for this album began against the backdrop of a spell of serious ill-health for guitarist and vocalist, Niall Lawlor – an immensely challenging time for the band and Niall in particular, who found himself becoming more withdrawn from his work, friends and music.
When things slowly started to improve, Ewen Friers (bassist, vocalist and co-writer) received a handful of demos from Niall – continuing his recovery in Canada – and Ewen says he felt compelled to add lyrics, if only “to give something, any kind of distraction, to Niall”.
Along with drummer Ethan Harman, the three-piece describe Bella Pacifica as “an album of recovery and hope”. And you feel that when you listen to it. The sound of a band singing a song for an audience of one, as they put it in the battle cry climax to Little Squamish.
There are almost too many highlights to mention here, and endless catchy refrains to sing along to. It was only after days of strutting round the house yelling “In Kitsilano, in Kitsilano” (from Blackcomber) that I reached for Google Maps to discover that Kitsilano does actually exist and now I desperately want to visit it myself.
Geography and the band’s own tales of travel permeate the album, taking us on a tour from Inishmore and the Dartford Tunnel across to Uluru in the Aussie outback and the Canadian ports of San Juan and Renfrew. In the band’s own words, it was “travel and exploration that informed this album most”.
The album walks a tightrope between heartache and celebration throughout, like with the deeply personal lyrics of Millar’s Ridge – “the tears spilled from the eyes of our companion as we bid him goodnight” – that dance over a driving blues beat. Or lines in the title track about the uncontrollable passage of time – “achievements gone in daily buzz, targets lost on most of us” – that sit juxtaposed with its joyful chorus. Niall explains that while the album does include sad songs, “it is hopeful that there can be good times again.”
The band’s own experiences while putting this record together, their third following Finding St. Kilda and The Mid Brae Inn, have given them a fresh perspective on what matters most when it comes to creating music. And when asked about what might indicate a measure of success for Bella Pacifica, Niall now simply says that “the success is existing in the first place”.
