Thanks Dylan for the recommendation, really sorta the whole point of this blog really. That we can share new finds, exchange some good tunes and get all feel good. Tom baxter is really really good, the recipe reads as follows " Take 1 david gray, mix with some jeff buckley, shake well with some Van Morrison and drain well"
click the video to listen to "Better" , his first single off the album
Good aint it? Now we all need to hold hands and pray westlife does NOT get a hold of it and massacre the living shit outta the song. (is it just me of does the chorus sound like it could be some Eason Chan hit? try it, hum the chorus and replace the words with some random mandarin..) Got to love his MV concept, all sorts of oddballs in love. It's missing a pair though, where's mini me and his sex romp partner?? Now THATS an oddball sex tape i need to see just to know mini me carries a regular sized pickle on a mini sesame seed bun. I hear it's being sold to the same guy who distributed Paris Hilton's meat video. Who is this guy?? I want his job!
Back to the music, Having never heard of Baxter's work before, i was really pleasantly surprised that his songwriting is really well.. pleasant. His album has some well suprising touches that make it really stand out. For one, he has wrapped traditional acoustic folk songs with gypsy bests, indian / middle eastern instruments, tempo changes out of the blue, 4 min orchestra solos etc etc. It's really refreshing when he gets it spot on. Album title track "Skybound" is one that really makes you listen. I guzzled it on my way to Changi Airport on Saturday night and i hit the repeat button 4 times in a row. Now this song is 7 mins, so thats about half an hour of the SAME song. I just could not get the arrangement out of my head. It was that absorbing. (again, i'm adding the song on the audiobiblio playlist) The start, middle and end of the song could be 3 different songs yet it all comes together really well. This is where for me, the Jeff Buckley infuences show a little. Skybound takes you through various moods in the short 7 minutes. There is piano solo snuck near the bridge that really lends weight to a rising string section toward the end. Brilliant.
He does need to hit the stop button every now and then. For every 'skybound' he gets right, the album does contain a few self indulgent tracks where it does go abit south. All in all , i still must confess to being a huge new fan. I'm getting his back catalgoue as i type and im pretty sure my education of Mr baxter won't stop here.
Question : Who's got a better falsetto? Him or David Beckham?
No comments :
Post a Comment