In a recent guest column for Q Magazine John McClure, the 'Reverend' in Reverend and The Makers, talked openly about the history of the band and how his reputation as a gobshite had begun to overshadow the bands material. Towards the end of the piece McClure, speaking about their latest album Mirrors says, “all I can ask is that you press play and listen to it, disregarding what has proceeded it and irrespective of who made it. Judge it on its own merit,” and frankly that's not too hard for me to do. If you weren't swept up in the first wave you'd be forgiven for missing out on this cult Indie band, they came up in the same Sheffield scene that gave us Arctic Monkeys but, despite having the same management, agent and PR, The Makers have always been a bit resistant to following the gold paved route to mainstream success of their counterparts. They turned down huge advances from major labels early on in their career and decided they would do things their own way, which includes acoustic sets in the car parks before shows, gigs in fans bedrooms and published books of lyrics and poetry for the faithful. I have to confess I'm one of those that didn't know much about the band apart from their well-plugged early single 'Heavyweight Champion Of The World' and despite catching a show at the time in some London club Mirrors is actually the first Reverend and The Makers album I've listened to from start to finish.

 
Mirrors steams through 14 songs in 35 minutes, the sound of McClure and main co-writer Ed Cosens abandoning any attempt to second guess what might sell more records. Instead they have simply followed their own muse and attempted to make a record they would really love to hear and presumably to play out to their fans. It's a beautifully produced work, everything sounds lovely and artfully balanced, with each of the mostly short songs flowing from one to the next almost seamlessly. They'll take you up one minute, say on the rollicking stomp of 'The Trip', but always reliably bring you back down again the next, like the flamenco tinged 'El Cabrera' a moody intro full of Mariachi trumpets that never really becomes a song. Another strength of the album is the vocal, or vocals in fact, as various different band members step up to take the lead, depending on whose voice would suit the song – it's ironic then that McClure has this reputation for being all ego and mouth when he's so willing to share the limelight on record with his bandmates. The album breezes by with songs that never linger long enough for you to tire of them on the first inspection. Even the last track, which might seem long here at 4:37, is pretty much over by the 3:00 mark, it just lingers for a minute and a half on a breathy synth chord, the first chance you get to take pause and consider what you've just been listening to. It's amazing really, if for nothing else Mirrors will go down as one of the only albums in history where the radio edits are longer than the album versions.

So after all that what is this unrestrained sound Reverend and The Makers have finally allowed themselves to make? I have to report that it's actually really quite traditional, this threaded together cycle of songs probably owes a fair bit to that suite of songs that closes the Beatles Abbey Road album, a bonkers idea of Paul McCartney's (probably influenced by Brian Wilson's adventures on the cutting room floor for 'Good Vibrations') to use up all the songlets they had lying around and weave them together into one mega-song, flowing from one to the next. Mirrors does so less chaotically though, as each song follows you get the feeling they belong together, made for each other. The songs are almost all retro rock, whether it's 60s psychedelia, like the opening minute that is 'Amsterdam', or the 90s of 'Black Widow', which starts off sounding like a continuation of Primal Scream and The Happy Monday's efforts to turn the groove from the Rolling Stones 'Sympathy For The Devil' into a genre. Musically the whole album wears it's heart on it's sleeve and it sits squarely in a musical camp that I'm not a huge fan or aficionado of, I'm talking about The Stone Roses, Oasis, Paul Weller and their like… the work of bands like The Kinks, Beatles and Stones juiced up with a soupçon of Northern Soul and a generous dollop of swagger. Have a listen to 'Stuck On You' and tell me that doesn't sound like Noel Gallagher dipping into a Ray Davies book of chord changes?

On this album whilst Reverend and The Makers do seem to be lacking an identity of their own they, more often than not, manage to succeed with each track. There are some real highlights like 'Makin' Babies', with it's great lyric about having kids (which proved prophetic for McClure), 'The Beach And The Sea' which has some beautiful cinematic strings and also 'The Trip' which has a brilliant momentum to it and feels like it deserves to be just a little longer! Whilst each song sounds like something you might have heard before on someone else's record you actually haven't and that should be celebrated! There has always been a bit of a thin line between plagiarism and genius in the history of pop, these bands they've been borrowing from borrowed those riffs in the first place – as Bowie said, “The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from”. I mean 'Mr Glassalfempty' is ripping off The Jam's 'Start' which in turn ripped off The Beatles' 'Taxman' but it's a solid song, the borrowed bass riff sounds great, the gospel-esque harmonies in the chorus are rich and it's a decent lyric about a terminally miserable chap. They're not going to win any prizes for originality but for fans of this kind of music this is a master-class.
Adam Kidd