So you thought that hippies were dead and the days of the rambling sleeve note were long since gone? Not so as this self titled album by The Butterfly Graveyard seems to prove with no less than four pages of hyperbole to saturate your senses before you immerse yourself in this album.
This is no conventional album. Stylistically, it is much like a ship that can’t set a consistent course and speed but it seems to get where it is going nonetheless. If you think of think of the likes of the drifting calmness of Enya and mix in a respectful take on modern ambient electronic then you are getting close to the effect that the Butterfly Graveyard have. Terence O’Connor uses his voice to spins tales of lyrical obliqueness that head off into avant-garde territory with moments of ethereal splendour such as “Falling”. However, it would be a mistake to consider this as arthouse even if you consider the biblical references and the poetry of lyrics like “…where the ocean cuts the sky, that’s where I’ll be” as there are moments of conventionality such as the convincing Americana of “Bonfires”
So, do we have the rebirth of free love and communing with all and sundry here? Perhaps not as this is an album that definitely flows one way despite its diversions. It is also an album that you have to take your time with as clearing away the layers to uncover its true intent isn’t something that you can do in five minutes. Let it flow and it does actually move you.