I have often wondered why Mull Historical Society AKA Colin MacIntyre has garnered so much praise for past releases. I couldn’t see it although performing live I was reasonably impressed by the band.

The first track, Peculiar, is a bouncy, retro-feel pop tune and is a pleasant enough opener. The next song, How ‘Bout I Love You More, is more epic in scale with a mammoth melody and angelic choruses. But, like several songs here, I sort of get the feeling that I’ve heard the song, or fundamental parts of it, before. With the next track, Treescavengers I get exactly the same feeling and especially during the pleasant piano passages. But this doesn’t stop it being quite a moving and meaningful song. This Is The Hebrides injects a touch of originality and harder edge to the album with a song, that despite exposing the singer’s vocal weaknesses, resonates with feeling and instrumental invention.

The second half of the album continues to show musical originality and heralds in a couple of major highlights, including the beautiful, haunting Your Love My Gain.

It’s actually hard to not like this album with its quite amazing diversity of content, pace and mood. While several of the songs sound familiar, on the plus side it’s ‘good familiar’, with melody always at the forefront, and underpinned by sensible and sensitive lyrics. This is essentially a very different record from past Mull releases and it’s a welcome change. The major test for any record is whether it is played more than once, and THIS IS HOPE has been played many times since its arrival. Recommended.

4/5