aaamusic | On 12, Apr 2011

William Fitzsimmons makes music about feelings, it’s not something you can listen to with your friends, maybe you can enjoy it with your partner, but you have to know that it’s something intimate and you feel a sort of respect for this guy who sings with a faint but soulful voice.

He tells people his life, what shocked him, what makes him happy, like a psychoanalytic session, in fact on his previous album he explored the emotions attached to his parents’ divorce, so writing songs is something therapeutic.

The result after five years of rest is Gold in the shadow, a perfect title for a collection of charming and fragile tracks because it’s like he wanted to hide his music beyond blown lyrics and minimal arrangements, but they are really beautiful so it is like gold kept in the darkness.

The strength of this work is in lyrics, maybe Fitzsimmons sings so gently to be better heard, because you have to pay attention if you want to understand words and I think you need to be alone in your room and turn loudspeakers up to enjoy the beauty of what he sings.

The first track and new single The Tide Pulls From The Moon is the perfect opener; sinister words accompanied by a svelte percussion as Fitzsimmons whispers, “You hide your Filthy hands from all of us
Still unseen and tied What water These killing hands could ever clean Still you run”.

Beautiful girl sings of someone with “sailor eyes”, a perfect love songs to dedicate to your lover.

Musically speaking Gold in the shadow can be defined as a folk album, Fitzsimmons voice is mainly accompanied by guitar arpeggios usually played with clear sounds, like harps, acoustic or banjos, but you can also find piano, drum machines, strings and jingling bells to make the whole a bit more dreaming, like in Let you break featuring Julia Stone, I can say that a good duet is always enjoyable, especially when two delicate voices intertwine like they do.

The winter of her leaving is the  “buoyant” track, despite its title, lyrics are optimistic and the mood of its melody is more joyful while Psychasthenia is the best track, it reminds some music of 90s with its girly chorus and the beat made with a drum machine.

The rest of the album streams well like a river made of melancholic thoughts and heavyhearted feelings, you can sweetly go with the flow and be ravished by the splendor of this music.

Author: Roberta Capuano