Description
Amy Hopwood’s third album, Into the Woods, is a thought-provoking, harmony-soaked, exploration of forests and fairy tales.
She delves into the psychological themes represented in the old tales and applies them to the way we live now. So, we have the Sleeping Beauty inspired song “Brambles”, where sensitive Rosa has nurtured a wall of thorns around her own heart as a protection from rejection; “The Liar and the Tailor”, a topical song about politicians and lying which draws on both the Cassandra myth and The Emperor’s New Clothes story; and “Happily Ever After” taking a wry look at the realities of life after the fairy tale wedding.
The “Into the Woods” theme continues with more straightforward songs about forests, trees, birds and bees. In “The Woodpecker’s Song” we have a woodpecker weighing up the merits of the different trees in his wood, but choosing ultimately the dead tree – beauty being in the eye of the beholder; and in “Where the Wild Bees Go”, Amy has created an acapella choir of buzzing bees for a song inspired by the folk tradition of “telling the bees”. Birdsong recorded in Ashclyst Forest, Devon creates an atmospheric backing for two of the album’s tracks, including the traditional folk song “The Seeds of Love”.
Track listing:
- Brambles
- Where the wild bees go
- Three impossible tasks
- The oak and the ash
- What wasn’t there
- Kintsugi
- The woodpecker’s song
- Astrid and the wolf
- The liar and the tailor
- Best served cold
- Happily ever after
- The seeds of love
