Three weeks after Clogs released The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton in March 2010, the woman for whom it was named died. Lady Susana Walton had been married to the composer Sir William Walton. She created their home, the tropical garden La Mortella, on the Italian island of Ischia, where they lived when the once well regarded musician's star had started to wane. Creatures was a celebration of life and presence, both qualities brought home by its predominant guest star, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden. Its florid, baroque approach was wound down on the partnering Veil Waltz EP, and hushed to a whisper on the Last Song EP, both released later that year as developments and conclusions to the project.
Two-and-a-half years later, we now have The Sundown Song EP, a three-song collection intended as a coda to Creatures, and to mark "an ending of what Clogs once were as well as a reaffirmation of what they continue to be." Unlike the other parts of the Creatures world, Padma Newsome is the only member of Clogs to appear on Sundown; Rachael Elliott, Thomas Kozumplik, and the National's Bryce Dessner are absent, though their label Brassland assures that it's not a permanent change despite the grave accompanying statement. The predominant lyrical theme here is mortality and life cycles-- perhaps in reference to Lady Walton, or transitions within the band-- and the domestic roses on the EP's cover aren't meant to represent La Mortella, but Newsome's own garden at home in Mallacoota, a gorgeous, isolated coastal town in Victoria, Australia.
The intimacy and simplicity of approach is startling: Each of these three songs is based around baritone ukulele (not the clanky kind used by their Brassland labelmates Buke and Gase) and Newsome's earnest, moving voice. It would sound folky if it weren't so formal. When I interviewed Newsome about Creatures for The Quietus in 2010, he used complex musical terminology-- isorhythms, mirror canons, double chases-- and if those processes are present on The Sundown Song EP, they're not as obvious. The low uke skitter on "A Hobson's Choice" ebbs around Newsome's tight, whipped vocal intonation, as he sings a perfectly plain song of conversations with friends on the porch, observing small, lolloping marsupials-- but highly strung, as if he had pulled all the threads tight in a piece of cloth. The topic of conversation turns to war and rifle fire and wives that weren't there on the soldiers' return, and suddenly the porch gathering is full of ghosts. A light enveloping of strings coaxes the tension out of the song, but as the ghosts slip away and Newsome's character confides in a friend about his "plans for the great great plans," it's as if he's mocking the point of making any.
The Sundown Song EP is the first Clogs release that feels as though it could be performed spontaneously, without the need for microphones or seated applause. The gently ululating "The World Loves Me" could be a wry comment on the way humans act as if the world and its myriad beasts should serve them, or it might just be Newsome wandering about his garden, looking out to Mallacoota's crystalline bay and marveling at life on the edge of the earth. The notes he sings always ascend or descend in opposition to the direction of the ukulele, making for a slight uneasiness sharpened by his eerie whistle.
The title track is a welcome balm to that relative standoffishness. It features the Mallacoota Community Choir, and the depth of their voices balance out Newsome's warmly lilting ukulele for a stirring effect that feels like being able to see the ocean floor clearly. Although the lyrics throughout the EP are quite simple descriptions of time's progression, the prevailing lyrical air of acceptance and of Newsome not wanting to change anything or dress his work up in fancy structures and conceits is unusually moving. "The people come and the people go/ But I'd rather stay here with you," he sings in the final lines of "The Sundown Song". It works for the Waltons' relationship, and for Clogs' welcome imperviousness; 12 years of producing precisely what they want, not what they think people want.
