Dreamless Days

The Meadows are a family band of four siblings: sisters Melody, Fantasia and Titania Meadows, and their brother, Harvey. Harvey plays the bodhrán. They play violins, piano, guitar, flute and whistles and sing, with a lead vocal and backing harmony. They gently complement and accommodate each other in a way that attests to long acquaintance, and easy intimacy.

They are talented brood, The Meadows, each writing as well as singing and playing. Their record label is named after the cramped home studio where they recorded, engineered and mastered Dreamless Days. Harvey designed the album. The Meadows like to keep their work in-house. That they were home-schooled by, as the press release says ‘creative and spiritual parents,’ comes as no surprise. And that’s the trouble. Dreamless Days opens with a sweet lullaby. It’s followed by ‘Elusive Dreams’, with dreamy backing singing. Then comes ‘Merlin’s Oak’, drawing, but not very deeply, on medieval Welsh history. ‘Dried White Rose’, well, we know what that symbolises. ‘Dreamless Days’ includes the vapid lines ‘freedom’s the thing we seek/To lead a happy life.’ It’s all quiet, polite and introspective. These Meadows kids need to get out of the house and go down the bus shelter with the village youths, a few bottles of cider and a packet of fags.