Jim Clements and the Right To Die - When The Saints Go

Recorded in just three days, ‘When The Saints Go’, Jim Clements and the Right to Die’s long-awaited second album since 2004’s ‘Kill Devil Hills’, retains a religious theme; this time looking at the idea of religious experiences in numerous ways.

Jim Clements, alongside his stupidly talented band who embrace the likes of Nick Cave and Wilco, resurrect the voices of canonised religious and cultural icons; describe in poetic detail the act of a woman entering the second life by drowning herself; and the intimate miracles of falling in love - only for it to end, albeit without the usual messiness and arguments over getting your Smiths albums back.

In fact, ‘When The Saints Go’ is perhaps an album composed of St. Augustine Confessions-esque accounts, with each presenting an intensely personal, autobiographical story.

Musically it’s simple and straightforward, yet it’s tight and clean, with the violin of Maya Ahuja pinning everything together. The lack of time to record and produce the album seems to have meant that nothing has been spared or thrown away.

However, it is the writing of Clements that makes the album stand up. ‘St. Christopher’s Traveling Blues’ has an apt country blues sound, and revives the patron saint of travel and sport, with Clements presenting him as a wise-cracking, self-assured kinda guy.

Clements’ St. Christopher says that he’s ‘the mix-tapes in the glove box when conversation wanes’ and that ‘that late night caffeine fix’ if there ‘ain’t no time for sleeping’ - it’s a refreshing take on the beheaded martyr of 1757 years ago (to be precise).

But this aura of cool turns out to be a statement of relevance and a cry for acknowledgement, as Clements’ St. Christopher bemoans how his religious experience has been disregarded by ‘those boys in Rome’ by warning them about the time when he, ‘the fluid in their brakes’, disappears.

On the face of it, it’s original and inventive take on a saint, but beneath it lurks a debate on the role of the Catholic church and how it functions; as if the saints and the ones who canonise down below are at odds with one another. It’s incredibly literate, yet subtle and, on hearing it, an experience in itself.

And that’s what ‘When The Saints Go’ is - an inventive lyrical experience, which easily stands-up to its influences. Lovers of Cave, Wilco etc will not be disappointed.