photo by Jacque Rolland; photo courtesy of Simon Scardanelli

by James Morris, Contributing Blogger

Album Review of Simon Scardanelli: Underneath The Singing Tree

CD and Streaming Release Date: 16th June 2025

We have had to wait along time for a new album from Simon Scardanelli. It’s been six long years since 2019’s The Rock, The Sea, The Rising Tide. The world was a different place back then, pre-COVID and all that. Since 2019, he has released several singles and most probably spent those lockdown years finding old projects to release and things to work on, like many of us did, to pass the time.

I know for a fact Simon has been working hard on a number of musical creations alongside this new album release. A folk opera is somewhere in the mix, another album maybe, this time with his live performing collaborator Sophie and who knows what else, all bubbling away on his musical hard drives. All that, whilst ramping up the number of his live shows around France as well. Busy busy!

image courtesy of Simon Scardanelli

So what about the new album? That’s why we’re here right?

OK, let’s get to it, I mean, after six years you must be keen to find out what he has in store for us this time. You have nothing to fear, just open your ears and prepare for a truly wonderful musical experience.

It may seem a bit simplistic, but firstly the running order of the songs is perfect. The tracks guide you through the audio journey very nicely indeed. In a world of streaming and shuffle mode, the art of sequencing songs on an album may seem a bit forgotten, but it is refreshing to listen to a well-ordered album the way the artist intended you to.

So it is an effortless listening experience made so by the crafting of the composer. Everything in the right place with variety and consideration designed to entertain.

Sonically, the whole album sparkles beautifully and is easily up to Simon’s usual excellent production standards. Crafted, lovingly and painstakingly put together. Every note, every space, every word, all must have a meaning and a reason to be there. Simon always excels at his production values, and I absolutely love the way that everything here has its own space and air to breathe and shine.

photo by Alain Marie; photo courtesy of Simon Scardanelli

So the mix and instrumentation is perfect for each of the songs but also his voice is so strong and ageless. I have listened to all his albums through the years, going back to Big Bam Boo in the late 1980s and even his pre-pop incarnations from the late ’70s and early ’80s. Simon’s voice is stronger now than those early outings and equal to anything else he has released in the last 30 years. It is with timeless ease that he reaches each note in every song and creates unusual and thoughtful harmonies. No room for clichés with Simon.

That follows through in both the music he composes and in the lyrics that he writes. His words, as always, defy cliché and weave an imagery and a storytelling of such interest that it leaves you wondering what sort of strange events could have inspired these songs. Love is certainly one large element on show here, or maybe a doomed love, possibly a stronger emotion that an artist can draw inspiration from.

You must discover these songs yourself. Let each one unfold and delight you. I was lucky enough to hear some of these songs at a small live show. They were new to me amongst Simon’s classic back catalogue. Songs, such as the playfully sombre “Five Seconds Ago Last Year,” reached out and grabbed me. I am so glad to have it on the new album, alongside the other new and enchanting songs. There is the resigned, “Here We Go Again” and the uplifting, “Let’s Go Dancing.” Listen to “Heart Upon My Fretboard” and revel in the simile of a songwriter’s vulnerability brought to bear on the neck of his guitar on which he bares his soul. Then there is the mysterious title track, “Underneath The Singing Tree,” which paints a picture of that aforementioned doomed affair in the magical forests of Huelgoat in Brittany, France.

photo courtesy of Simon Scardanelli

The song “Battle Ships,” destined for Simon’s other ongoing musical project, the folk opera La Mer, has been included in advance on this album. A firm new live show favourite, it has muscled its way onto the album on the back of its audience popularity and its overwhelming majesty. Driven by a forceful ukulele, this song shows Simon’s versatility in switching between instruments to create a broad and exciting musical landscape.

One song which may be familiar to fans of his work is “Glittering Prize.” Originally recorded during the Make Us Happy sessions in 2015, it then found itself a release as a single in 2021 (one of those lockdown projects, no doubt). Its inclusion on the new album finds it seamlessly slotting in with the other tracks. A reworking of the song, with new vocals and an enhanced mix, has elevated it beyond the original single version and will impress any who have heard it before and equally delight new listeners.

I haven’t discussed each and every one of the songs on the album, that is for you to discover, as I said earlier. However I hope that I have given you a flavour of the excellence that runs through the whole release.

This is Simon’s best album since the eternal Make Us Happy and is a great job, very well done. So many outstanding tracks make this album a resounding success and worth every minute of the wait. (3,038,400 of them, but who’s counting!) Now how long till the next album, Simon?