Why We Build The Wall - Anais Mitchell ft Greg Brown
Our LCM featured artist today is the wonderful US singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell. We thought it would be very appropriate today to have as our LCM #TrackOfTheDay a very powerful song from her famous 'Hadestown' concept folk opera album. The lyrics are almost prophetic and timely. The album was originally released back in 2010. It follows a variation on the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, where Orpheus must embark on a quest to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld. Within the narrative of the album, the part of Orpheus is played by Vernon, Persephone by DiFranco, Hades by Greg Brown, The Fates by Tanya, Petra and Rachel Haden, Hermes by Ben Knox Miller and Mitchell herself plays Eurydice.
Upon release, 'Hadestown' gained extremely positive reviews overall. Drowned in Sound awarded the album a rare 10/10, stating that "Mitchell traverses such a sweeping range of emotions, genres and styles over the course of Hadestown, it’s frankly remarkable that the whole thing works at all. That it works so brilliantly well, that in under an hour it creates a world you’ll want to return to time and time again, that it is a glittering model of the form – of collaboration itself – is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
The Guardian and NME were similarly effusive in their praise, awarding the album 5/5 and 9/10 respectively. Stereo Subversion's Jonathan Sanders gave the album a perfect score and called it "a lasting example of where folk music can go when the right musicians take hold of history."