Friday 4th August, 2023
Summerhall, Edinburgh
Mull Historical Society hit the stage on the first night of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe last friday, to find a packed crowd eager to celebrate the highly acclaimed band’s latest album, ‘In My Mind There’s A Room’. For their ninth studio album and first in five years, we see a diverse collection of remarkably poignant and evocative songs that connect songwriter, Colin MacIntyre, and collaborators to ‘place’. In this case the notion of a room or rooms from childhood which hold a special significance, shaping them into who they are today and specifically shaping MacIntyre into one of Scotland’s great creative talents.
The band delivers on this conceptual challenge in spades and one is immediately struck by their depth of connection to the material and how it yields a veritable kaleidoscope of sonic architecture. The playing from each member of the band positively shines where they’ve clearly mastered being individually expressive whilst never overstepping and undermining the whole. It’s a joyous carnival atmosphere.
The songwriting hits hard and is never dull. There are many vague flavours to my ear – from Radiohead to Flaming Lips, David Gray to Wilco – but MHS are known for their own sound having innovated stylistically for across many albums. The emotional power of the writing clearly establishes their authority in this regard and MacIntyre delivers the words with a deep understanding of his craft and a supreme lyrical prowess.
The collaborative process behind the album is one he describes as asking people to be the Bernie Taupin to his Elton. Words were written for him by literary giants such as Nick Hornby, Ian Rankin, Alan Warner, Jason Mott, Sebastian Barry, Scottish poet laureates’ Jackie Kay and Liz Lochhead, Jacqueline Wilson, Val McDermid, Jennifer Clement and Stephen Kelman. Using their words as inspirations MHS created a rich collection of tunes that will appeal to anyone, given we all have that metaphorical room that was once a literal room and which has now become something beyond the corporeal. More a symbolic plane that serves as a metaphysical container for the great journey of life itself and that’s the level of depth that MHS have captured here.
There’s a sense of folk homeliness mixed with an acerbic modernity which enables them to revel in their element – channelling equal parts nostalgia and aspiration. And the audience love it. Singing along to their hits and hanging on every word from their new songs. With recent singles like “1952” and “Panicked Feathers” fitting in beautifully, we can look forward to a fresh suite of hits to get stuck in our heads on long drives and sleepless nights.
The album, in its entirety, is hugely evocative, intellectually curious and calls forth the listener’s imagination to join them on a journey. There’s plenty here for fans new and old to fall in love with and it could just become your favourite album of the year. The melodies are equally at home soaring over rolling hills or winding their way through the back alleys of great cities. This is humanism and nature in symbiosis. The writing speaks of history and hope, suffering and salvation and the sum of it all is the authentic gift of the soul’s revelation.
The last track is MacIntyre’s father reciting his own poem about Mull in a rich baritone voice and it’s the perfect final weave to an immensely rich tapestry. “Do you remember, brother, those times of long ago” it begins. Mull Historical Society have again delivered work that serves to traverse the grand narratives of the human story and much power to them.
Stuart Bruce
Mumble Music 