Hymns for the Hopeless was the only William Elliott Whitmore album missing from my racks until the end of last year. I've been listening to this guy for years now and his voice and songs are incredible. You can read about some of his other records here, here and here. My parents asked if there were any records I wanted for Christmas, and I'd seen this on the Southern Records website and was very pleased to find it after unwrapping the square 12" present under the tree.
As ever, there aren't a huge number of songs on here, but they're all great. Cold and Dead and Our Paths Will Cross Again book-end the album brilliantly (the former is acapella and the latter consists of vocals, bass drum and hand-claps. I love hand-claps in a song). Two particularly noteworthy songs are Sometimes Our Dreams Float Like Anchors and Pine Box. The former was the first Will Whitmore song I ever heard - it had been on a Southern Records sampler I'd got free and on a mixtape Hugh made for me in the last year of university. The first William Elliott Whitmore record I bought was his Untitled Latitudes session, which also featured the live "winter" version of that song, so I feel particularly attached to it.
The first time I saw Will was in The Globe in Cardiff and half way through the show he asks if anyone had any requests. Some woman down the front asked for Pine Box and the whole crowd stood silently for five minutes while he played the saddest song I think I've ever heard. It was years before I'd hear that song again but my memory of him playing it never faded. The lyrics are about the death of a loved one, and the line "the river would overflow / if only I could trade a raindrop for ever tear" has always stuck with me in particular.
If you've never listened to William Elliott Whitmore, I thoroughly recommend him. Maybe Pine Box isn't the best place to start, but if you do start there I warn you that you may come away an emotional wreck.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 8
Cost: free, new
Bought: gift
When: 25/12/12
Colour: Blue
Etching: none
mp3s: no
