My Secret Is My Silence is the debut studio album by Idlewild lead vocalist Roddy Woomble, released 24 July 2006 on Pure Records.
The album, produced by John McCusker, features tracks co-written by McCusker, Rod Jones, Michael Angus and Karine Polwart, as well as the vocals of folk singer Kate Rusby.
Background and recording
Between 1997 and 2005, Roddy Woomble released four studio albums with his band Idlewild, which toyed with grunge-lite punk rock to folk-inspired rock. Their latest album up to this point, Warnings/Promises (2005), also incorporated country elements, which a lot of the band's fans did not take to. Despite the album's favourable reception from music critics, it spent one week in the top ten of the UK Albums Chart, falling to number 39 the following week.
Idlwild had promoted it with a handful of acoustic shows; sometime after Woomble moved to the United States, living in New York City. Woomble opted to expand on the band's shift in style, focusing on his love for traditional Scottish folk music. My Secret Is My Silence was recorded at Pure Studios in South Yorkshire with McCusker as producer over nine days in March 2006. Woomble and other musicians lived in a farmhouse next to the studio. Andy Seward handled recording, while Joe rushby did additional engineering. Seward mixing the recordings, before the album was mastered by Calum Malcolm.
Writing and composition
Woomble noted that My Secret Is My Silence was predominantly written inside his small flat in Glasgow following the Warnings/Promises period. He said that was a period of extensive touring and "record company pressure. I had a longing for wide open spaces, glens, rivers and trees, and to be rid of the trappings of a moderately successful major label rock band. So [the] record is all about escapism". He added that the "barriers were down so I could do whatever I wanted. I don't look at it as a solo record [...] it's more of a collaborative effort. There are ten people on it!". He co-wrote nearly all of the songs, bar "Whiskeyface", with Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones, McCusker, Michael Angus of Foxface and Karine Polwart; "Whiskeyface" is solely credited to McCusker. Woomble was surrounded by a variety of musicians playing various instruments, while he only did lead vocals. Angus, Ian Carr, Jones, McCusker and Polwart all contributed gtuiars, either acoustic or electric, while Woomble's wife Ailidh Lennon of Sons and Daughters played bass. Other instruments, such as drums, violin and organs, were played by Andy Cutting, David Gow, McCusker, Michael McGoldrick and Donald Shaw. Aiding Woomble on vocals, Angus, Dave Burland, Jones, Polwart and Kate Rusby sung on various tracks across the album.
AllMusic reviewer Tim DiGravina said the album had two sides to it: the "pensive, brittle ballads", such as "I Came In from the Mountain" and "If I Could Name Any Name", while "on the other hand midtempo to urgent storming tracks indistinguishable from Idlewild fare other than the presence of fiddles and folksy percussion in the place of electric guitars and distortion pedals". "I Came In from the Mountain" began as a more up-tempo song until Carr's guitar part altered its direction. McCusker said the first take of the song was the version they ended up using. With "As Still as I Watch Your Grave", Woomble said they attempted to evoke the work of Fairport Convention and Liege & Lief (1969), as it was a favourite of Woomble's, while its chorus sections were in the style of Idlewild. Jones said it started as an Idlewild song, only to be changed by the other musicians involved during the making of the album. "Every Line of a Long Moment" is about dreaming about islands while living in a city. "My Secret Is My Silence" has Woomble singing about his way home; him and McCusker were listening to the work of the Band while writing it, with Woomble picking lines from his notebooks.