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REVIEWS
Here's what some people have said about the album....
Andy Thornton
Sunflower Girl
Dubious Recordings DUB006
5 stars
Unforgettable listening experience from talented newcomer.
Initially the best way to fully appreciate just how good a musician Yorkshireman
Andy Thornton is, is to listen to SUNFLOWER GIRL without knowing anything about it
or indeed him. If you approach this album without any preconceptions you'll find
an exquisite mosaic of the songwriters' art. Thornton writes wonderfully mature intelligent
songs that require the listener to be equally mature and intelligent. SUNFLOWER GIRL
is an album of wonderfully crafted songs that could only come from a man for whom
writing is an extension of himself. But as thoughtful and well written as the likes
of Shake The Moon Down, Under My Skin and Shores of Forever are (and you could select
any of the songs as perfect examples), the real substance comes from the fact that
Thornton is unable to separate himself from the music. SUNFLOWER GIRL will gently
break your heart and then immediately restore your faith and for that alone, it deserves
its place among the singer-songwriter classics.
However, when you learn that it was written in the year following the death of Thornton's
wife, it becomes something different altogether. Only Andy Thornton will know the
effect that writing and recording SUNFLOWER GIRL had on him but he lays himself so
open on songs like Crashing and Burning and Rosey (One More Time) that it becomes
almost too intrusive. As a writer Andy Thornton freeze-frames his experiences into
3 and 4 minute tapestries and they have no need of ornate settings, the poetry of
Love's Promised Land requires nothing more than the simplest of arrangements and
Thornton's soaring, aching voice, anything more would simply be a distraction, in
this case simplicity adds lustre.
There is a gentle integrity about SUNFLOWER GIRL that originates from one source,
the creator's care, paradoxically it also lifts the spirits. Andy Thornton is surely
one of those musicians who measures success and failure in the quality of the music,
not in the units 'moved'. It certainly meets the most stringent quality test on the
first; let's hope for the sake of real music it also succeeds in the second. Listening
to SUNFLOWER GIRL is an experience you'll never forget.
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Here's another.... from FYFEOPEDIA Not quite as positive, but still broadly in favour.
Andy Thornton
Sunflower Girl
(2005)
To be honest, I’d never heard of Scottish singer-songwriter Andy Thornton or his
previous project Big Sur, until his record company sent me a review copy of Sunflower
Girl, his third solo album. These songs were written in the year that followed Thornton’s
wife passing away from cancer at the age of 29. As you’d expect, based on such circumstances,
Sunflower Girl is utterly sincere; to such an extent that it’s either going to hit
listeners right in the stomach, or become an easy target for mockery with its extreme
honesty and openness. I’m probably not the most impartial judge, since right now
I’m feeling emotionally raw enough that unexpectedly happy endings in movies make
me cry, but most of these songs have the former effect to me. As much as Sunflower
Girl is a lyrics focused album, it’s arguably more of a triumph musically; Thornton
has a tendency to occasionally lapse into overused metaphors about ships and rainbows,
not a surprise when the subject matter is so direct, while most of his melodies are
genuinely memorable and his stripped down arrangements suit the material perfectly.
One frame of reference for Thornton is seventies folkie Roy Harper; Thornton’s voice
has a similar lilt, his lyrics share the same yearning romanticism, and if he’s further
from pure folk than Harper, his acoustic finger-picking still betrays a strong folk
influence. Aged 47 when he recorded Sunflower Girl, Thornton has more in common with
seasoned writers like John Martyn rather than the new generation of bed wetters like
David Gray. Thornton handles most of the instrumentation himself, and recorded the
songs in his home studio, and it sounds great; sometimes there’s little more than
acoustic guitar.
Sunflower Girl’s strongest songs include ‘Under My Skin’, with a jazzy feel and some
of Thornton’s most inventive lyrics (“She’s a poppy field/When you thought you’d
see wheat”). The opening ‘Shake The Moon Down’ is handicapped by awkward lyrics in
crucial places (no matter how heartbroken you are, “tell me please - have you never
been in love?” is never an acceptable line) but it’s still agreeably memorable. ‘Safely
Home’ ends the album beautifully, with an uplifting resolution and gorgeous, subtle
orchestration. There are plenty of pretty acoustic melodies like ‘That Girl’ and
‘He Does Not Deserve You’, and the pretty ‘Rosey (One More Time)’. On the negative
side, the title track is somewhat overwrought, like David Gates trying his hand at
emo, not surprising given the circumstances, and it’s a credit to Thornton as a writer
that he’s able to capture a wider range of emotions than just the grief expressed
on this song. Sharing in someone else’s pain is sometimes the best way to soothe
your own soul, and as an eloquent expression of difficult emotions Sunflower Girl
is a success, where Thornton’s music legitimately serves as a conduit for his emotions
and as a window to his soul.
