Combining the lusher approach of his earlier work with the more reflective tone of later records,
Wakelines marks the sixth studio LP from
Colin MacIntyre's long-tenured indie pop project
Mull Historical Society. Having branched out over the years into various literary efforts including radio plays, a novel, and a children's book,
MacIntyre's worlds once again collide in the distinctive environment he's built under the
MHS banner. His flair for imbuing warm, guitar-led chamber pop with richly detailed narratives from his rural Hebridean upbringing remains at the heart of his art, and rarely has he looked back so fondly as on
Wakelines which coincides with the publication of his memoir Hometown Tales: The Boy in the Bubble. Among his many fond Isle of Mull reveries, the nostalgic "14 Year Year Old Boy" stands as one of the best
MHS songs in years, recalling the day
MacIntyre's father delivered to him his first electric guitar, wading it ashore from the delivery boat, held protectively above the waves. It's an undoubtedly endearing image which clearly shaped the singer's life to come, and it's hard not to get swept up in the song's elegant, building production courtesy of the very tasteful
Bernard Butler (
Suede).
Butler and
MacIntyre together make for a rather inspired combo, gracefully toeing the line between melodic guitar pop offerings like "Wetlands Urban Fox" and orchestrally minded arrangements like "Child Inside of Me." Writing with a sentimental gaze was a dominant trait of
MacIntyre's even as a young man, and now in middle age, he does so with the authority of a nearly two-decade career and accumulated personal history behind him on this excellent release.