A new Advance Base song signals the changing of the seasons. Maybe that’s because of the extraordinary wealth of Christmas music Owen Ashworth has released under the moniker over the past twenty-plus years, his snow-globe keyboard and bitter-cold realism capturing the season’s bleakness. A new album, “Horrible Occurrences”, is out December 6th — all adds up — and “The Year I Lived in Richmond” is its opening track.
A twinkling murder ballad, it is plainspoken but vivid, delivered in Ashworth’s effortless drawl, cut up by tiny falsetto howls. However chilly the story, Ashworth never loses his warmth.
“Horrible Occurrences” is the title of Owen Ashworth’s new album as Advance Base, and there is truth in advertising. In these songs—all centered around a fictional town called Richmond and featuring an interlinked cast of characters—you will hear stories of death and disappearance, climactic confrontations and unsolved mysteries. “Richmond is just this place where all the bad memories live,” Ashworth says with a laugh, and nearly 30 years into his song-writing career, none of his records have packed quite the emotional intensity of this one. And yet something alchemical happens in the telling of these tales. Like a masterful short story collection, “Horrible Occurrences” is inspiring and alive, idiosyncratic and electric, pulling you closer with each word.
The Fat Angel Sings 