For an artist, releasing an album is typically a joyful experience, when fans can finally listen to the months, or even years, of work they’ve put in to create that record. For Brown Bird, however, the release of their latest album Axis Mundi is bittersweet. David Lamb, half of the eclectic folk duo, lost his battle with leukemia in April of 2014, and his wife and music partner MorganEve Swain was left to finish the project on her own. All of the songs except one, “Tortured Boy,” were either written by Lamb shortly after his diagnosis or during his initial recovery. Swain said that sifting through those songs was incredibly difficult for her, but with the help of her brother, producer Spencer Swain, she was able to pull together one final tribute to Brown Bird and her late husband.
Swain said Axis Mundi is the album Brown Bird always wanted to create. The duo has often been typecasted as a folk group, and with Axis Mundi they wanted to take a more rock-influenced approach. The genre-defying band utilizes their typical Middle-Eastern music and surf-rock, but this time with a heavier and fuller sound. The organized chaos of the album is intriguing. Intense and difficult time signatures, typical in Middle-Eastern and Eastern European music, are featured on the record (listen to “Bannermen” or “Aloha Senor Mano”) and performed with surprising virtuosity.
Most notable about Axis Mundi, though, is how it serves as a record of Brown’s emotions as he progressed through his illness. Most of the songs were written shortly after his diagnosis. Especially raw (and heartbreaking) is “Focus,” in which he sings, “I focus on the pain/ Transformation comes/ Tempered by the flame/ And if this flesh should fail/ Devour me from within/ May then my soul prevail/ Free to roam again.” Another beautifully personal song is “Avalon,” a song that Lamb recorded and gave to Swain as a Christmas present. “Avalon” tells the story of a beautiful huntress, prompting Swain to name her upcoming solo album Huntress. “Tortured Boy,” written by Swain shortly after she and Lamb met, is a love letter to her husband that seems even more fitting now. “I don’t want to bathe/ I’m afraid I’ll lose your smell,” she sings. Overall, Axis Mundi, fittingly named after a mythical place where heaven and earth meet, serves as a way for Lamb’s music to reach fans, even after he no longer can.
Grade: B
