Fanboy Review: "And We'll Sing" by Runrig

This is far, FAR too late to do a Singles Collection article on (this song came out as a single on the 28th of April 2013), but, well, Runrig are working on their fourteenth album at the moment and the only other stuff that I have by Runrig is their albums from 1987 to 1995 (The Cutter And The Clan, Searchlight, Big Wheel, Amazing Things and Mara), so this is about the most recent thing by the band that I can talk about short of ordering their most recent live DVD, which I can't do due to not having the money to do so before I have to go to Scotland for a week (so yes, you'll almost certainly be reading this as something that I've scheduled to be posted, not posted directly by myself!) and not being that familiar with the band's material outside of those albums.

So, with that said, I should answer the burning question most of you are no doubt asking: "Who the fuck are Runrig?"

Well, Runrig are a Celtic rock band from the Isle Of Skye that formed in 1973 (then under the name The Run Rig Dance Band). They were originally a three piece dance band (think ceilidh dancing and you're probably not too far from the mark) before switching to Celtic rock (although not before releasing their first album, Play Gaelic, in 1978 under their old sound: their second album, 1979's The Highland Connection, is apparently a transition between their old sound and their more well known sound) and they've pretty much stuck with that since then. Two of the band's founding members, brothers Rory Macdonald (the band's bassist) and Calum Macdonald (one of the band's drummers), are the band's main songwriters and also have a solo project (or a duo project, if you want to be technical) called The Band From Rockall (...go look up Rockall if you've not heard of it, I am not going to be a geography teacher for this one due to the fact I don't have as much time to write this as I'd like!) which has an album out. I'm not entirely sure why they have a solo project, since the music they had done for it is apparently pretty much the same as what the band have done with Runrig, but, as I've not actually heard the album and I'm going purely off of guesswork here, I'll not complain!

Anyway, moving back to Runrig, the band got big when they released their fifth album, The Cutter And The Clan, and pretty much have remained fairly popular among fans of Celtic rock in the UK, Denmark and Germany. They have an established fanbase in Canada as well thanks to them adding current vocalist Bruce Guthro to the band in 1999. Yet their albums with Guthro (all of the ones after Mara) haven't exactly caught on, which I feel is a real shame due to Guthro actually being a pretty good vocalist in his own right!

Yet 2013 was a special year for the band, as it marked their 40th year as a band. And so, to celebrate, the band released this single on the same date that they had played their first ever concert (in Glasgow...so I'm surprised that wasn't their only concert, considering how tough a place Glasgow can be!).

And...I only learnt about it a few months ago.

No, seriously: I had heard a bit of stuff by Runrig growing up due to my stepmother having a CD of their greatest hits, but I'd not bothered to look deeper into their history up until about February or March this year. When I found out more about them, though, I was hooked! Maybe it's because I grew up loving folk music (and still love the music now, I just tend to stick with metal these days), but, every time I hear Runrig, I just feel like I've found the perfect fusion between what I like now and what I loved as a kid. Runrig, to me, are a band who understand folk music so well that they can add rock elements to it and know how to strike the perfect balance between the two sounds: they can make even their heaviest songs have noticeable folk roots while avoiding the trap of making the rock elements feel like they were just added for the sake of adding a rock edge. I suppose my only real complaint is that Runrig doesn't really have guitar solos for their music, but hey, folk music doesn't have instrumental solos much, so I'm not going to complain about them taking their roots from folk over rock on that aspect!

So yeah, this review is likely to not be especially neutral. Fanboy alert!

Anyway, before you get bored by me talking about the ins and outs of folk music, let's get started with this! I sadly cannot provide a official video for the single, as no official release of it was made for YouTube and I don't think it's available to stream online. That said, there IS a video which has the song as part of it, so, if you want to hear the song, you can listen to it via the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOiCRA--Bq8

With that done, let's talk about the song!

One of the things that I really like about this track is that it's one of those songs that works on so many levels. Since I'm sure most people won't want me to rave about this song for a long period of time, let me break down every way in which this song works:

1. There's an atmosphere in this track through some more subtle instrumentation that brings this song to life in a way that just screams of the beauty of Scotland. I'm not saying every good song has to have an atmosphere, but, when you do styles of music with connections to folk music, you will earn a lot of praise for making a song atmospheric in a way that brings the song to lift in a way that you couldn't do without it. Runrig manages this nicely with this track: it has a somewhat mystical edge that shows just how magical good folk rock (and, in this case, Celtic rock) can be.
2. The instrumentation across the whole track, while fairly simple, has a restrained edge to it that shows the band is restraining themselves because they know the song calls for simplicity. While I did tear Sixx:A.M.'s new single a new one for doing the same thing (which I reviewed here, if you would like to read it), the difference between the two is that the simplicity here isn't a case of only being there to give Bruce Guthro something to sing over: it's supporting the song by providing a memorable listening experience in and of itself, but still letting Guthro take up his place in the spotlight and doesn't try to upstage him while doing it. If you were to take Guthro out of this song, it would still be a good listen, while "Gotta Get It Right" would have been forgotten even as it was playing.
3. The vocal line and lyrics of this song are so strong that you could perform this song unaccompanied if you wished and it would still be an enjoyable song. This is one of the strengths of good folk music, so I'll admit that Runrig probably have an advantage over a lot of bands in this regard, but, for the benefit of those who are wondering what makes folk one of my favourite styles of music even now, it's the fact that you can take a folk song and perform it in any way you want to. You can make it a sprawling epic with instrumental battles that would make Dream Theater blush, you can sing it over a loud heavy metal soundtrack, you can sing it unaccompanied...you get the point, I'm sure! Folk music is strong music because you can take any folk song and perform it in whatever way you wish, because that's what folk asks for: a strong melody line and lyrics that appeal to people who did those tough jobs that most people nowadays know nothing about or lived those lifestyles that most of us today simply couldn't do. A good folk song can be taken out of an accompanied music style and performed unaccompanied without losing anything, and this song is honestly pretty good for that!

Now I've finished gushing about this song on how it works on the levels it does, let's start looking at the performances. Well, none of the members are really doing anything that complex musically, but I feel it's a case of them knowing that the song doesn't need anything especially complex and are running with that fact rather than playing slowly because they weren't up to playing it faster.

Huh...that was short.

Bruce Guthro, as I mentioned earlier, is a pretty good vocalist in his own right, managing to replace Donnie Munro very nicely. I don't know whether long time fans of Runrig would rate Guthro over Munro by any measure and I will admit that I feel Guthro lacks a certain something that Munro could pull off flawlessly, but he does a fine job here! I guess I'm missing the Scottish accent in the singing a bit here as well, but it's nothing major and Guthro's voice is still pretty good here! The guy has an active solo career when he isn't singing for Runrig, but I unfortunately know nothing about his solo material beyond a quick glance at the genres it is under in wikipedia (country/folk for his first two albums, pop/folk for his later ones), so I'm going to have to defer to anyone with more knowledge about Guthro if they're willing to get in touch when I'm back from my time in Scotland.

So...actually, do you really need me at this point? This is just a brilliant song and is one that, to me, shows that Runrig still have some gas left in the tank. Even when I look at this critically, my complaints are minor at worst. If Runrig's next album has songs that are on this level at average, I imagine Runrig's next album will be really good, so, if you've never heard of Runrig before now...go pick up The Cutter & The Clan, as it's one of my favourite albums of all time. Then go pick this up and enjoy what I consider to be one of the finest Celtic rock bands in the world.

Final Rating: 9 Out Of 10

An outstanding track that is really worth a listen if you have any interest in folk music or rock music. If you don't like either of those styles, I'd still give it a listen, as it's just a brilliant track on so many levels that I'm sure you'll really enjoy it.