Blues-heavy, Zeppelin-shouldered rock that plays it straight-faced — written and sung by Richard Terris, built out with a rotating cast of session players.
Wailing Recluse takes its cues from 1973 — the year blues-rock hit its heaviest, most unhurried stride — and plays it completely straight-faced. It's the solo project of Glasgow songwriter Richard Terris — voice, pen, and the songs — built out with session musicians handling everything else, so the record breathes like a proper full-band session without ever pretending to be one.
Terris writes from the blues outward: John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson underneath, Cream and Free and early Zeppelin on top, with The Beatles — Paul McCartney's melodic sense especially — keeping the songs from running off into pure noise. Reviewers keep reaching for Robert Plant, Paul Rodgers, and Ian Gillan to describe the voice, which is a compliment and also just accurate.
The songs sit closer to the bone than the riffs suggest — solitude, fallen faith, staying upright when everyone else has left the field — with two acoustic passages dropped mid-record like a breath taken between rounds. Cathartic first, escapist second, loud regardless.
Welcome back to 1973 — we've missed you.
A very proficient and broadly enjoyable slice of 70s rock … we could have a real find here.
“Fallen Angel” is its own distinct song, and one that I just unabashedly loved.