After Americana and Canadiana... Devonia. Farewell My Lovely is the second album from Rupert Graeme Morrison, a man whose parents didn’t realise he was going to be a rootsy, gutsy, lo-fi balladeer, and so he has disguised his entirely inappropriate name in his cunning nom de band. It was recorded in a remote house in Devon with no central heating (sort of Bon Iver, but with cream teas). Percussion comes from a battered old suitcase; duvets and curtain poles were used to rig up the vocal “booth”.
Chair squeaks are included in the mix — although the tapes were taken to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios for a final going-over. Thus, these mournful ballads emerge, gritty but glowing. The slow, quiet songs are usefully interrupted by moments of electric guitar mayhem, but nothing is allowed to get in the way of Morrison’s addictive voice.