Pillars Of Creation: Be Careful What You Wish For

Pillars Of Creation: Be Careful What You Wish For

(Precious Recordings Of London)

Ltd LP | DL

Out now

Jim Shepherd, previously of the Jasmine Minks, assembles The Pillars of Creation to release an album of immense ambition, breaking the shackles of any preconceptions.

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The pillars upon which an indie empire was built. That is the concept, the band. Ex-Jasmine Minks frontman Jim Shepherd had already recruited a band of early Creation Records alumni for his “solo” album The Circle in 2022, but this time out, his name is off the cover in favour of a band name that reflects the history of all involved. Together, they have taken Shepherds’ songs and imbued them with such a depth, so many layers, that each listen reveals a spark, a twist, another hidden detail that pulls you into this expansive sound. For any C86 aficionados pining for a return to the jangling past, look away now, but keep listening.

Be Careful What You Wish For is a whole different sound, leaning into a more prog-inspired style, shifting sounds and rhythms on whims as the songs unfold, while still maintaining an ear for hooks and melodies. The songs tumble by, edging ever closer to the album centrepiece, the focus, the concept. Shepherd himself states that the album is one of transformation, of rebirth, of freedom, and that seed comes to fruition in the ambitious and sprawling fifteen-minute track Bluebird, which takes up practically the entire second side. It shifts deftly between the various parts that make up its whole, an encapsulation of the album as it moves through changing and repeating motifs, always returning to the idea of freedom in the flight of the bluebird. Along the way, through this odyssey of a journey, it pulls in folk, country, prog, mod-pop. In doing so, in aligning itself to a definite concept and drawing on all the colours of their collective musical palette, the band have produced an album that is more likely to recall SF Sorrow and Odgens’ Nut Gone Flake than …All Good Preachers Go To Heaven.

That concept, Shepherd says, was born out of an obsession with one line from David Bowie’s Lazarus. “Just like that bluebird, I’ll be free.” That freedom is what Shepherd needed, craved. An escape at a time of strife, a refuge that he found again in writing. Despite that need for escape, there is still a feeling that one must cherish that which keeps us grounded. The idea comes through right at the beginning of the album, the opening line of the album’s title track: “Time is a slippery thing. Lose hold of it once and its thread might be gone from your hands forever.” After an almost simple music hall piano, the song and album announce themselves. Subtle brass notes rise, the acoustic guitar holds it tight, and Be Careful What You Wish For unfolds into a Pepper-era Beatles song of beauty. From there, the journey to Bluebird commences.

Songs like One Way Home and Aide De Camp shimmer as they glide by, reinforcing the search for the silver lining reached through liberation, the latter unfolding another narrative of escape. The way in which the song slowly builds pulls you further into the story. A soft motorik beat gives way to military drum rolls and rising brass that underpins the whole song, adding to the melancholy of the story. On The Eyes That See, the whole band take flight with Ruth Tidmarsh (Alternative TV) providing backing vocals that capture you siren-like, holding you in the moment. However, it is, again, on Bluebird where she is given her own moment, a moment that is one of the many highlights of the album.

Strange Kind Of Lovin’ revels in a rolling full-band sound that cascades around Shepherd’s vocals. The bassline of Arash Trabi (June Brides) and the drums of Dave Morgan (The Loft/Weather Prophets) keep the reins tight, tethering the song to the ground while the guitars take flight. Another wonderful gem on an album that revels in not being tied down.

In a true nod to albums like Ogdens’… and SF Sorrow, when the album centrepiece arrives, it is introduced through spoken poetry, in this case from Scottish poet Sid Ozalid. It provides a grounding, a short tale that balances the desire for change and escape while simultaneously appreciating that which we have. Inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck’s Bluebird, a play about learning to accept reality, it is a message that the album threads throughout its eight songs. Signing off with I Walk The Path, the band again pull together to craft one final journey to another place.

With Be Careful What You Wish For, Jim Shepherd has, with the help of his cohort of Creation pillars, produced an album of great scope and depth, one that reinforces the need to embrace all the joy we have, the only true way to escape that which holds us down.

Be Careful What You Wish For is available now from Piccadilly Records and on Bandcamp.

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Words by Nathan Whittle. Find his Louder Than War archive here.