William Elliott Whitmore - Animals in the Dark

Animals in the Dark was the first William Elliott Whitmore after released after his "Black trilogy" (as I've heard them referred to) of Hymns For the Hopeless, Ashes to Dust and Song of the Blackbird. Mutiny, the opening song here, immediately sets the album apart with a song that sounds like nothing on those earlier albums - comprising just (gang-)vocals and drums, it was very unexpected when I first heard it, but I loved it. Will's voice is one of my favourites and it works so well against the sparse drums. The outro of "He don't need no water / Let the motherfucker burn" was a surprise too, although tainted by the fact that most people (myself included) know the lines from shitty nu-metal songs around the turn of the century.

After that, we settle back into more familiar WEW territory, but with smaller twists - Johnny Law leans heavily into traditional country and Old Devils builds gradually in speed throughout (and is a highlight for it). The best songs are the ones that would have fit onto any of the previous albums (although that's not necessarily why they're the best songs) - Who Stole the Soul is slow and haunting, Hell or High Water is lovely in the usual Will Whitmore way, and There's Hope For You is uplifting and positive, in a way.

The album ends with A Good Day to Die, which is another lovely song but, if I'm being honest, a bit of a downer. I remember playing this album in the car in Florida as we got near to Gainesville for Fest and Sarah pressing eject somewhere towards the end of the song - she wasn't enjoying it and felt that Will had already expressed his opinion on whether or not today was a good day to die enough times already. My attempts to make her a fan of Will's work clearly didn't work.

I picked this copy up in Spillers just after it was released. 2008 was my Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year and I'd only been in once in 2009 before I went in to get this in March; it wasn't intentional, I don't think, it's just that if I wasn't forcing myself to go I tended to be lazy and not go.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 18/03/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

William Elliott Whitmore + Esme Patterson - Play Each Other's Songs

I've been mostly keeping up with my William Elliott Whitmore collection, although that is more through coincidence than any actual plan - his records just seem to appear in shops without me having much or any knowledge that they're coming out; as far as I'm aware, there's no social media to keep an eye on for news of releases, so I'll just have to keep relying record shops putting the records in front of my eyes (quite literally, in this case).

This was one such record. I had no idea it was being released and still know very little about it (like who Esme Patterson is, how this split came to be or when it came out). I saw it at the front of the box of 7"s in Truck one day - I don't tend to browse the 7"s much these days because there's not often much I'm after on 7" and they're getting very expensive (also, the box in on the floor at Truck, so I have to get right down to browse it). Had it not been at the front and bright yellow I almost certainly wouldn't have seen it. It was as expensive as I've come to expect 7"s to be (£7), but I bought it anyway.

Will covers Esme's Elysium and makes it sound like it could be one of his own, albeit one of his slower ones. That said, with such a voice I'd like to hear a song he couldn't make sound like one of his own. Esme covers Will's Not Feeling Any Pain which sounds lovely. Her voice adds a different dimension to the song and makes it sound more positive than Will's original. I don't know their respective ages, but as sung by a young-sounding woman instead of an old-sounding man, the song is very hopeful, which is nice. That's the sign of a good cover, one that makes you think of a song in a different light. I'm glad I found this 7" - it very easily could have slipped me by.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £7 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 20/01/17
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

William Elliott Whitmore - Untitled

I recently completed my William Elliott Whitmore LP collection after finding a copy of Ashes to Dust on vinyl, an album I'd had on cd for years. This record, conversely, was the start of the collection.

During the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers year, I found this six-song EP in their racks and quickly decided that was going to be my purchase that week. I'd been introduced to his music a year beforehand and his name kept coming up from people I knew in Cardiff; a year later he played a sold-out show in The Globe on easily the hottest day of the year and it was incredible. I think everyone I knew in Cardiff was there and he wowed us all.

At the start of the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers I was diligently recording the records I bought onto cds (via a USB turntable) to play on the kitchen hifi. Despite never having proper mp3s of these songs, I knew them so well because that cd got a lot of play. It still lives on, in the spindle of cdrs in my car, and the short duration means that I often end up playing it a couple of times over. The version of Sometimes Our Dreams Float Like Anchors is billed as the "Winter Version", and I'd go to say that it's less warm than the album version, but that's all relative - even at the end when the banjo stops and we're just left with Will's incredible voice, it's hard to describe it as anything other than warm. I know this version much more than the original from all those plays in the kitchen.

The first two songs are from Song of the Blackbird, which I think was his newest at the time; Anchors is from the excellent Hymns For the Hopeless. The first song on the second side is Have Mercy, a song that wouldn't appear on any record until 2015's Radium Death. I was very confused when I got home to play the record (with the appropriate level of excitement for a new WEW record) and heard a song I knew very well. Buildin' Me a Home is a traditional song, but such a fine example of William's voice - it's like being wrapped in a thick blanket. The final song only appears on this record, as far as I can tell - it's one of his more upbeat southern-country style songs.

This record also introduced me to the concept of the Latitudes Sessions, a series I now have a few releases from - this was the fourth in series (indexed at 0) - I also have Dälek (#6), Gowns (#19) and A Storm of Light (#23), but looking through the list there are a few others I'd be keen to hear. The list of artists who have recorded a session is incredibly mixed and interesting. As I've mentioned in the other posts, I love the artwork used across the series. This is the red vinyl of the WEW record, which was the more numerous (800 copies, and 200 on green).

Format: 12", die-cut sleeve, insert
Tracks: 6
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 26/02/08
Colour: Transparent red
Etching: none
mp3s: no

William Elliott Whitmore - The Day the End Finally Came

I have a lot of records by William Elliott Whitmore and they're all excellent. He has a fantastic voice and both times I've seen him play live were incredible and are some very fond memories of mine. Strictly speaking, this record is a bit redundant as each of the three songs appears in some form on another album - Does Me No Good on Hymns For the Hopeless and The Day the End Finally Came and The Buzzards Won't Cry on Ashes to Dust (although these are different recordings, the latter of which was recorded by John Congleton of The Paper Chase, another favourite of mine).

I received this 7" as a Christmas present along with the Hymns LP from my parents; all three are lovely songs, so there's no harm in having different versions of them. The Day the End Finally Came is rounded out by some extra musicians and The Buzzards Won't Cry has a more country feel to it. It's also worth pointing what an incredibly bleak title for a song The Day the End Finally Came is. Will Whitmore, unsurprisingly, is the man to do such a title justice.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: free, new
Bought: Gift
When: 25/12/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

William Elliott Whitmore - Hymns for the Hopeless

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

William Elliott Whitmore - Field Songs

This is the most recent Will Whitmore album and, unsurprisingly, he's made another incredible record. I got Banquet to order this one in for me after spotting that they had his last album in stock. The overlap between the records I used to buy in Spillers and the records I now buy in Banquet may not be huge, but it at least includes Will Whitmore, so I'm happy.

I won't rant too long about how much time I have for this guy, but I really can't get enough of his music. This album is eight more great songs (never one to put too many songs on a record - short but sweet) and once again Will's voice is what carries the record. The banjo and guitars (and kick-drum on Don't Need It) are all brilliant but it's the raspy, older-than-his-years vocals that keeps me putting these records on.

The songs are sparse, often bleak and dark, but also subtly uplifting (just have a listen to Not Feeling Any Pain) and I can't recommend it enough.


Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 8
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Banquet
When: 31/08/11
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: cd

William Elliott Whitmore + P.O.S. - Split

I bought this one last Record Store Day. I was confused by it then, and still am a bit now. Will Whitmore and P.O.S. (who I know from Doomtree) seem like an odd combination. I assume they just happen to be on the same record label or something. It was also the only 7" I got that day as RSD 7"s are crazy expensive.

Will's song is great - just vocal and a kick drum, but his voice carries itself so it's no wonder it works so well. I'm a big fan as I've said before and will say again. The first time I heard of Doomtree and of any of the artists in the collective was on their Daytrotter Session, which I enjoyed greatly. This song is really good and builds up in a nice subtle way. They all seem to be making a lot of great music.

So an odd 7", but two great, if very different, songs.


Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £7 new
Bought: Banquet
When: 16/04/11
Colour: Black
Etching: no
mp3s: no

William Elliott Whitmore - Song of the Blackbird

I'm a big fan of everything William Elliott Whitmore has put out. I had a song on a sampler cd for ages but somehow hadn't paid much attention to it at the time. I later heard the same song on a mixtape Hugh sent me in the last year of university, but this time I realised it was brilliant. (In my defence, the sampler cd had way too many songs on it.) I picked up this record in Spillers towards the end of the Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year having earlier bought Ashes to Ashes on cd in Generation Records and his Untitled Latitude Session in Spillers. I'm still missing Hymns for the Hopeless, the other record in his early trilogy-of-sorts, but I'm sure I'll pick that one up soon too.

Musically it's lovely, but all of his recordings are. Quite dark and slow for the most part, but that suits his voice so well. And it's his voice that really carries it. He sings like he's in his 80's, having smoked all his life. It's a very unique sound, at least it is in my record collection. A short album, but with 8 incredible songs (and one instrumental that I could live without). Dry and The Chariot are both highlights and a brilliant way to start the album. Take it on the Chin is another lovely moment, carried along by it's simple kick-drum rhythm, and Everyday is a slow finisher that rounds the album off nicely.

I've had the good fortune of seeing Will play live twice now and each time was incredible. The second time was fairly recently in The Windmill in Brixton. When asking for requests, someone jokingly asked for "all of them" and he did pretty much that - a set nearly 3 hours longs and every song of his you could wish for. He's playing End of the Road festival this year and I'm toying with the idea of going. Seeing him in a pub is nice, but I can't think of an act I'd like to see play in a sunny field more than Will Whitmore. It has the potential to be perfect.


Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeve
Tracks: 9
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 25/11/08
Colour: Red
Etching: none
mp3s: no