Nick Mulvey's 'New Mythology': Hope, Healing and Reconnection

Nick Mulvey Live in 2018

Since I first saw him play on Later... with Jools Holland in 2014, performing 'Fever To The Form', I have been entranced by the music and sound of Nick Mulvey. Eight years after that first listen, I find myself delighting in Nick Mulvey's recently released third album, five years since the release of his second: Wake up Now.

New Mythology is a bravura display of Nick Mulvey's musical and lyrical talent. Threaded through the album is the recognisable Spanish guitar, honest vocals, and poetic lyrics that encapsulate Mulvey's style. Building and developing upon his second album, recent singles and his 2020 EP, Mulvey presents a vocally layered, experimental and resonant soundscape in this new album.

Every song has its own distinct sound and yet the album flows seamlessly from one song to another. Each song represents Mulvey's sincere desire to express every flicker and flash of emotion, his experiences and reflections. A message that I feel ties all the songs on the album together is one of hope and healing. It manifests in the hope that comes from healing and the healing power of hope. The hope and healing that Mulvey sings of is directed not just at the self, but to the environment and climate also.

Climate change and socio-environmental issues have always been a dedicated space, and indeed anchor, within Mulvey's music. Mulvey's second album is certainly a place where this flourished in astute and perceptive lyrics; whether the migrant crisis explored through 'Myela' or fracking in Lancashire in 'We Are Never Apart', Mulvey's attunement to the environmental issues we face seems instinctive and whole-bodied. His 2019 single 'In the Anthropocene' promises 'we still have time', and Mulvey continues to express his lingering hope and faith in the collective human community to react and respond to these environmental issues throughout New Mythology.

'A Prayer of My Own' is the opening track on New Mythology and encapsulates the album's entire ethos. Indeed, these five lines emphasise Mulvey's connection and dedication to his personal world (his family) and the world in which we all inhabit:

And I do it for my own

My little boy, my little girl

And we do it for our home, hey hey,

If we do it for our world

So let it out and let it in.

Mulvey’s playful use of tense is what helps embed the hope into his lyric. I believe Mulvey here is suggesting that we often treat our homes with a sanctity and care: ‘we do it for our home’. He imagines the world we could live in "if" we do it for our world too. Mulvey is not naïve in the current climate crisis, he holds the human player, and corporations accountable, but he empowers the listener to evaluate and reflect on the way they treat the world around them.

‘Another Way to Be’ is another track on the album that I found captured this message of hope and healing most succinctly, despite its relative lyric simplicity. A soft lilting strumming pattern that is so recognisably Mulvey sweeps in with the almost sepia sounding tones of Mulvey’s child and wife overlapping with the guitar. When I first heard the song’s opening line “the sun in the sky for free” I found myself instantly moved. The beauty of this album is Mulvey’s ability to remind you to be grateful to exist, encounter the wonders of the world for free, the sun in the sky, the sea, family, home. Certainly, Mulvey warns us that this indeed could be ‘the end of the line’, guitar pausing for thought, but still returns to the capacity for hope and healing, repeating the refrain that there’s ‘another way to be’.

Replying to a comment on a recent Instagram post regarding the song, Mulvey said:

We are all desperate for another way to be. Ways that don't drain ourselves and and our earth. Thankfully it's possible.

In fact, "another way to be" is a mantra that marks this album's philosophy. During an Instagram Live on 19 June, Mulvey discussed how this album should really have been called Ancient Mythology. The values and connections this album explores, beckons, triggers and examines, all come from a position that seeks to reconnect to places of importance that resonate with the self. "To the mainstream culture these ideas are new" as Mulvey explained, but they are ancient ideals Mulvey entreats us to engage in. Mulvey further described the importance of learning from indigenous cultures since our own indigenous culture has been dislocated through colonial expansion and environmental degradation. Therefore, this album represents a forum for the listener to think in "another way."

'Mona' and 'Shores of Mona' (lyrically the same, musically different) are two songs that most explicitly engage with this desire to reconnect with place. Indeed, Mona is the ancient name of the island off the coast of north-west Wales which we now call Anglesey. It was a sacred location to our Celtic ancestors, Mulvey making further reference to this through his referencing of the Brittonic tribe, the Eceni. 'Shores of Mona' even features a Celtic prayer that is powerfully woven into this song of ancestral reconnection and modern anxiety.

Outside of lyrical meaning and theme analysis, the actual mechanical engineering of this album is also stellar. Each instrument and vocal was individually recorded and then expertly compiled to create a unified and polished - yet still organic - sound. 'Brother to You' is one of the most musically complex tracks from the album and beautifully compliments the attitude of Mulvey's lyrics. It is a lively number that is well balanced despite its layered sounds. It is perhaps a track that would have also belonged just as well on the previous album with the likes of 'Myela' and 'Transform Your Game (We Remain)'.

'Interbeing Part 1' represents a moment to pause and slow down before the two final tracks. The gentle hum of cicadas ground the listener, finding a moment of tranquillity in the guitar and the only uttered lyric "all we want is to feel that feeling again." The album is closed by 'Begin Again (Love You Just the Same)' (a development of the track from the same-entitled 2020 EP) and an acoustic version of 'Star Nation', the first song Mulvey wrote for the album.

New Mythology is a captivating album rich in deeper meaning and human emotion. Nick Mulvey is a master creator of music and mood, talented with an adept ability to communicate his own connection to this planet and move us to it. This album was made with collaboration and self-discovery at its heart and I can unequivocally say that it is a privilege to listen to it and become immersed in its world and philosophy.