October 21, 2022 by A.S. Van Dorston

40 years and 14 albums in, Worcestershire post-punk/art rock/chamber folk noir band are still in peak haunted autumnal form.

How many bands are able to release an album over 40 years into their career, and achieve close to peak form? I can think of only one. Formed in Worcestershire in 1979, And Also The Trees were tourmates with The Cure in 1981. Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst produced their first demo, From Under the Hill (1982), and the band made the right decision to let the songs marinate a little longer before including re-recorded versions in their self-titled debut album. It showed them as worthy contemporaries of The Chameleons, Sad Lovers & Giants, Bauhaus and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. They took a somewhat parallel path with Cave, sharing interests in Americana, chamber folk noir, dark cabaret, with the Trees’ approach generally employing less bluster and more simmer. Two advantages that contributed to AATT’s consistency is they didn’t fall into rabbit holes of trying to become Leonard Cohen, or punishing their audience with tedious exercises in overly pretentious projects.

Here we are with their fourteenth album, which comes very close to measuring up to their best — depending on who you ask, Virus Meadow (1986), (Listen For) The Rag and Bone Man (2007), The Millpond Years (1988), Born Into the Waves (2016) or And Also The Trees (1984). Brothers Simon Huw Jones and Justin Jones are the only remaining founding members on the last two albums. It’s been six years since Born Into the Waves, and they confidently move on from some of the self-consciously experimental tracks on the previous album to something more immersive and elegant. Simon has been based in Genève, Switzerland, where some of the album was recorded. With the help of the multi-instrumental talents of Colin Ozanne’s clarinets and Justin’s zither and autoharp, they subtly evoke continental Europe. A literal example is their first single, “In a Bed in Yugoslavia,” quivering with the ebb and flow of simmering passion. The melancholic, ethereal sounds augmented by old world folk instrumentation go back at least to Further From the Truth (2003). The evolution of this approach changed slightly on each album along with the instruments, from melodica, dulcimer and accordion to glockenspiel, xylophone and vibraphone.

Variance in moods and textures can be found in tracks like “Beyond Action and Reaction,” which starts with a distorted bass that could have come from The Birthday Party, though the line “I can make you come with me” sounds less louche than it would from Cave. “Across the Divide” makes use of vocal processing that sounds like a muted megaphone, a technique also employed by Tom Waits and Sixteen Horsepower in the past, with equally haunting effect.

The fact that they remain unknown even to most fans of Swans, Nick Cave/Grinderman and Killing Joke is just another drop in the bucket of this shit world. The Bone Carver finds them at a peak of autumnal beauty and majesty.

Silver Soul (1998)
Further From the Truth (2003)
The Klaxon (1993)
Green is the Sea (1992)
Angelfish (1996)

The best way to get a sense of the greatness of their back catalog is to first look at arguably their “worst” album, Silver Sail (1998), which takes on surf and garage noir along the lines of Gallon Drunk and The Flaming Stars, and is a thoroughly enjoyable album. The rest of the albums get increasingly better, from good to great.

Farewell to the Shade (1989)
Hunter Not the Hunted (2012)
When The Rains Come (2009)
And Also The Trees (1984)
Born Into the Waves (2016)
The Millipond Years (1988)
(Listen For) The Rag And Bone Man (2007)
Virus Meadow (1986)

Basically the rest of their catalog is essential if you really want to dig in to AATT. You could start with critical favorite Virus Meadow (1986), start chronologically with their 1984 debut, recently remastered with bonus singles added, the post-punk darkwave album The Cure and Joy Division fans never knew they were missing, or jump to (Listen For) The Rag and Bone Man (2007), which has the highest RYM rating.