Review: Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Love Valley

There is something strangely thrilling about the voice of Michael Bernard Fitzgerald which, granted, is an oxymoronic assertion given how low-burn, slow-burn, and subdued his voice is, though it’s perfectly matched to his similarly hushed, ruminative songs. 

Fitzgerald makes minutiae — kitchen radios, corner-store coffee, dogs on the carpet — positively glow.  Take this from the softly propulsive “I Love That Sound:” “You slipped off your dress /I watched it hit the ground/Man I love that sound.” The sound of a dress hitting the floor as allegory for epic love? Why not… isn’t that how most of us experience life, one tiny, occasionally transcendental instant at a time.

Besides, you can hear the unflinching passion and honesty in Fitzgerald’s delivery, and it makes almost every moment on Love Valley resonate in ways that go beyond its acoustic, folksy provenance.  “The Best We Haven’t Seen Yet” sketches out an early morning in strokes so vivid Ken Danby might have painted it. Ditto the almost ethereal “Our River” which follows a new life cut out of the country, one passing season at a time. 

Home (and the rituals within, many of them erotic) looms large here, with Fitzgerald making real seem really real, in ways simple yet bespoke. Want to illustrate the adage of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts? Play this beautiful, beguiling record.

Love Valley was released October 9, 2020.
Listen to it here.