‘Treehouse Tapes Vol. #2' by Emma McGann

Following the critical & popular success of Vol. #1, Emma McGann is back with ‘Treehouse Tapes Vol. #2' which contains the songs "I Dare You", "Embers Only Glow", "Call You Again", "Skeletons" and "Whisper". Some of these titles may sound familiar: indeed I've reviewed some myself. This is because they are selected by her fans from amongst her ‘Jungle Tapes' releases and re-arranged/reimagined. Which just goes to show how strong the compositions are to begin with that multiple angles offer equal rewards from them.

If you take the Bandcamp route to ‘Treehouse Tapes Vol. #2' (and I'm writing this on a Bandcamp Friday so I do hope you go that way as Emma will get more of the proceeds) you also get "a radio transmission from Emma's Treehouse" which "invites listeners into the intimate headspace where these songs were born, echoing the sense of connection and creative isolation that fuels her work." Or more prosaically, the stories behind each track.

This sense of self proclaimed "creative isolation" is interesting: Emma is producing some fascinating work in her studio & embarking on some equally interesting experimentation which as you'll know from previous articles, she periodically shares. That these experiments never stray down a road of self indulgence but actually tend towards the stripped back & vital is massively to Emma's credit. My only wish is that she might step out of her isolation a little more often to play her songs live before an audience.

Emma pretty much escaped the clutches of genre imprisonment years ago so I can't offer much in the way of generalisations about ‘Treehouse Tapes Vol. #2' other than the above and regarding her honesty & emotional commitment. As a window into her versatility it actually reaches out way past her core fanbase towards which it is primarily aimed. As a really talented multi-instrumentalist, the notion people might get having read the aim of the album that it's an acoustic approach to songs more fully arranged elsewhere is trashed. She plays whatever she needs to play to remake songs and so these are as realised as the original versions: just different.

I suppose this in some ways contributes to the "live" conundrum: her inhouse band is entirely herself (and she self produces too: her only collaborator being James Plester for mixing & mastering) and thus to replicate them live would require recruiting. Certainly I've only caught her playing solo with an acoustic guitar of late.

Does this matter? Probably not. The whole live scene is fraught with issues currently from the threats to venues to the economic viability of artists getting bands together in such a way. At least we have these songs to play at home in the forms Emma has worked hard to craft.

In this case, she seems to have had a lot of fun in reworking this set (and I not only rejoice for her but suggest that you'll enjoy the listening just as much)  she pushes the boundaries compellingly and while you can detect plenty of that experimentation, it's never so far that it escapes danceability or accessibility: in fact the songs probably can be said to have gained in character as much as any other outcome from the revisitation. And I'm pretty certain I've never said that in a review before.