EP Review : 'Pritchard’s ‘The Fairytale of Long Armed Men’

Pritchard is a singer-songwriter and an acoustic rock artist from Birmingham. His work is marked by his creative use of gradients, textures, tonalities and many other secondary sonic elements. They present as beautiful melodic expanses that touch upon moments of classic rock, blues, folk rock, indie, and post rock. It is quite the spread. His distillation technique pulls the listener in and compels them to savor each curve, lick, and inflection of the soundscape. In Prichard’s work, everything is in the details. Story, emotion, sentiment, or even just the aesthetics. Each track will convey its intricate essence to you and all you have to do is dive in and spread into it. 

Pritchard debuts with his EP, ‘The Fairytale of Long Armed Men’. The collection invokes a seeping daze as it blends romanticism with moments of fairytale absurdities. Each one is vested with pockets of nostalgia, contemplation, melancholy, beauty, and transience. You can help but drift away into it. ‘Sunset’ opens the EP. It introduces these ideated frames and sonic characters, which build in context across the album. It is a mellow instrumental that carries the ebbs and flows of twilight as it sinks into sunset. 

‘It’s Over Now’ flows with the same energy, Pritchard's voice brings a baritonal drama. Matched with the gloomy ethos of the sax and guitar backdrop, it captures the thematic emotion like a camera captures a moment in time. Reminiscent of The Beatles, ‘Long Armed Men’ and ‘Beauty in Disguise’ are folk rock tracks that shine with vocal melodies and buoyant instrumentation. 

‘Looking Glass’ is wrapped in a mysterious veil that definitely glints with a quaint fairytale charm. It summons to the mind the imagery from Lewis Carroll’s book as he catalogs the journey from childhood to youth to adult. There’s an elaborateness to it with reflective vocals and long-winded guitar solos. 

The EP ends on the light and cheerful sensibilities of ‘Sunrise’. With whistles, chirping birds, winds breezing, and alarm clocks ringing, it is quite elating and refreshing. Retrospectively posing all the other soundscapes as fragments of a dream that you had while fast asleep. Like something out of a fairytale. Somehow this realization makes the whole listening experience surreal. Listen Now! 

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The EP is available for streaming on popular sites like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music! 

You can listen to ‘The Fairytale of Long Armed Men’ by Pritchard here -