24 February 2018
Album review – If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous. “Light and dark swirl through If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous … There is a depth to the vocals of Sarah McQuaid, the velvet resonance a match for her talents on guitar.”
http://www.thealternateroot.com/reviewarchives/sarah-mcquaid
Sarah McQuaid
If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous
Light and dark swirl through If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous, the recent release from Sarah McQuaid. A weight falls on the topics, the stories stare into the face of mortality as Sarah McQuaid brightens the theme by surrounding the tales with guitar notes, primarily on acoustic strings. A loan from producer Michael Chapman is the backing for the title track as Sarah plugs in an electric guitar to intricately entwine the playing with the subtle percussion of the track. If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous stacks cover versions in the middle of an album listen, reworking “Forever Autumn”, made famous by Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues, leading into the Gregorian chant “Dies Irae”, continuing the mood into an English language translation of the title with an instrumental written by Sarah McQuaid, “The Day of Wrath; That Day”.
Carefully plucked notes sparkle like refracted light as the mood turns somber to consider “Time to Love” while more form is given to the musical structures of the instrumental “New Beginnings” as If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous watches flesh and bone fade with “Slow Decay” and “Break Me Down”. There is a depth to the vocals of Sarah McQuaid, the velvet resonance a match for her talents on guitar. Sarah McQuaid slowly follows “The Tug of the Moon” on barely moving rhythms while If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous relates the imminent demise of a bird in “One Sparrow Down”.