Single Review and Album Preview
The Pillars Of Creation
Be Careful What You Wish For
DL only single
Released today, 6 March 2026
Album of the same name available for pre-order for release 11 April 2026 on DL and vinyl.
Just who are the mystery supergroup The Pillars Of Creation? Made up as they are of legendary luminaries from the Creation Records label. Could there be a Reid, Shields, Gillespie or Gallagher in the line-up? What kind of genre-crossing magic can they create? Precious Recordings of London are very excited about this release. It is a masterpiece they say… Ged Babey finds out more for LTW.
If Precious Recordings of London were a bunch of money-grabbing shysters, they would have promoted this release with a few teaser red-herrings using Creations biggest and best-known as bait. (Like I did above.) But they are not and they haven’t. And it isn’t.
What it is are a couple of the labels originals who were there from the very start. And this is an album loaded with love and ideas.
The Pillars of Creation is an ironic name with a bit of tongue in cheek pomposity, coined by Dave Morgan for the Jim Shepherd band.
In fact, although this is the first album credited to The Pillars of Creation, it’s really the band’s second after The Circle, released in 2022 (on Spinout Nuggets) and credited as a Shepherd solo effort. (LTW review)
Jim Shepherd was the one of the singer/guitarists with The Jasmine Minks – the early Creation Records band that Alan McGee thought ‘had the best chance of making it’. They never did. But are loved by loyal devotees.
Dave Morgan (The Loft, Rockingbirds, loads of other bands), is on drums and synths (as well as production and mixing). Frank Sweeney (who played on records by Felt, Primal Scream, Slaughter Joe, Meat Whiplash and the Revolving Paint Dream) on keyboards. They are joined by bassist Arash Torabi (June Brides, The Distractions, The Granite Shore and Beat Hotel), Ruth Tidmarsh (Alternative TV) and Innes MacKintosh (a very talented youngster who hasn’t submitted his CV…).
…they’re back together for an epic record that represents a radical departure. And one thing’s for sure: the new album is not a record beholden to a typically C86 or early Creation sound. Layers of sound, beautifully crafted arrangements, strings, spoken word and an 18-minute mini rock opera that takes up almost a whole side. Frankly, this is Jim’s masterpiece…
“Be Careful What You Wish For was written in a brief period when I took a month off work, because my son was very ill,” says Shepherd. “I would just sit with him, and my wife Gemma suggested that I write songs while I was sitting around for hours, so out of that came 14 new songs, including an 18-minute suite of songs, based on (and named after) Maurice Maeterlinck’s Bluebird, a play about learning to accept reality.
“The songs poured out of me, whether I was being inspired by listening to Prince or watching the news about refugees in boats or reading novels about faraway lands … I wanted to convey optimism but darkness creeps in too. I wouldn’t change a note: everything the guys contributed is perfect.”
On first listen, (by someone not that familiar with Jim’s work) I can hear loads of influences: The Beatles going through a ‘Country’ phase, Ivor Cutler joining a Prog Rock band, Neil Young at his most soulful, The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev maybe, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, the Waterboys making their presence known; lots of Americana and big soulful, heartfelt rock’n’roll which aims for a communal connection. It really isn’t what I expected at all. It’s wide-screen and open-hearted and asking big questions about life.
It will take a few listens to really appreciate it and you’ll need to fully submerge yourself in it. The epic Bluebird suite is a folk/prog/country odyssey which doesn’t get boring as it constantly mutates… The closing track is like a classic hit single from 1974 which you’ve never heard but will be glad you have now.
The title track is a campfire anthem with muted brass-band and echoes of Beatles and Americana combined in a musical hug. It’s a strange and wonderful album that embraces new and old ideas and is full of hazy optimism.
The Pillars of Creation are an out of the blue, idiosyncratic and inspirational monument to the talent of Jim Shepherd and friends. But expect the unexpected.
All words Ged Babey with press release content in italics.
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