Marsh Towers: Scott Lloyd: Looking Out To Sea

Monday 25 June 2018

Scott Lloyd: Looking Out To Sea

Good news - this week sees a new release from Scott Lloyd.

Scott - born in Middlesbrough on Teesside and now based in Manchester - has been featured several times before here at Marsh Towers (see the index below).

Now he has returned with a brand new single and some more good news. He has signed with Cornwall-based independent label Aardvark Records and will be playing number of gigs down in Falmouth to mark his official launch on the label. This will ensure Scott's music reaches the wider audience it deserves.

In our in-depth interview, presented here just over a year ago, Scott told me of his aims and they included 'Short term I think it’s to try and write great songs and try to let people hear them as best I can.' Which brings us neatly to Looking Out To Sea.

The new song starts off softly and then the main music crashes in just like the waves of the sea. The theme is man caught between his youth and the need to move on, being 'a bit scared' because he can't stop the 'turn of the wheel'. As the scale of the worry and the problems starts to build, the solution is a trip to the coast, both physical and allegorical, with his future wife. While looking out to sea, 'those waves inside of me crash against the cliffs' and this leads to a cascade of memories from simpler times, 'where spaghetti hoops were a superfood' and puts all of his current worries and doubt into a more stable context, counterpointing the past and the future in equal measure ('I'm flying the flag of this family's past/I won't let it rust, I know I won't be the last'). The song then comes pleasingly full circle as the music slows down to match the diminishing pace of the waves before coming to a very gentle finale.

In some ways Looking Out to Sea follows up on the themes explored on the title track of In the Garden, taking the story of development and the juxtaposition of the glorification of the past, the worries of the present and the fear of future a stage further.

This is not manufactured, conveyor-belt music; Scott crafts this songs carefully. His style continues to develop and it is clear to me Looking Out To Sea is his best song to date. He is quite prepared to 'give it some time', 'taking the long road' because he 'wants to see the views'.

If you have yet to sample Scott's music, now is an excellent time to start.