Tom McRae

[iainjclark]

I'm addicted to Tom McRae. It started small - just the first album. Okay, strike that, it started big - just the first album. I liked it after one listen, loved it after two, then we put it on repeat play in the car and never looked back. I'm expecting the album's third child shortly.

What's got me hooked is the alchemical combination of insidious tunes and smart, evocative lyrics. There's hardly a false note on the album; sincere and beautiful without being sentimental, bitter without being cold, thoughtful without being laboured. There's a darkness that permeates even the sweetest emotion. At every turn the songs defy the conventional, and yet push every button that needs pushing. The standout tracks for me are Bloodless, One More Mile, Hidden Camera Show... oh, all of them really. The only low point is A & B song, but it's not poor, just stylistically evocative of cheesy '80s rock.

I know it's a risky thing to say after a few weeks' exposure but on current evidence it's up there with my all time favourite albums¹. It reminds me of Ben Folds, Damien Rice, Thea Gilmore - edgy, singer-songwriter sensibility.

I've now progressed as far as his second album Just like Blood, which I must confess I was hugely disappointed with on first listen. After the boldness of his debut the follow-up feels oddly conventional, with all the things that grabbed me tempered by a more mainstream sensibility. It's hardly a damning indictment, but the final track Human Remains would sit comfortably on Neil Finn's last album.

Thankfully Just Like Blood has grown on me since then; the songs sneak up on you both musically and lyrically, and there are some real gems. Stronger than Dirt and Mermaid Blues would be my picks from the album. I've certainly spent entire days with its tunes circling around my hindbrain, but it's not the classic its predecessor was.

At the moment I have both albums in circulation, but I'm holding off on the third album until I've had a bit more time for these two to settle in. In the meantime, if you haven't heard the self-titled first album, I really can't recommend it highly enough. Even my wife is an addict.

¹For context, my favourite albums are probably, in no particular order: Whatever and Ever Amen by Ben Folds Five, Before These Crowded Streets by Dave Matthews Band, Automatic for the People by R.E.M., Mighty Joe Moon by Grant Lee Buffalo, Recovering the Satellites by Counting Crows, Laid by James, Together Alone by Crowded House... you get the idea.

Comments

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

First off: all three albums are good.

If I had to rank them, I'd go Just Like Blood > Debut >> All Maps Welcome.

The only reason I can give for that is colour. Just Like Blood kinda peters out after 'Karaoke Soul', but before that the songs are all great, and they feel that bit more diverse than the debut. Much as I love 'Second Law' and 'Bloodless' (and 'A & B Song' :p ), they do get just a tiny bit samey after several consecutive listens. I don't get that from the stuff off the second album.

And if you want to hear a more mainstream Mcrae, pick up album three...

Also, never let Su hear you say that Whatever and Ever Amen is one of your favourite albums. :)

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Also, never let Su hear you say that Whatever and Ever Amen is one of your favourite albums. :)

...

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Do tell.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Let's just say that you've not really heard that album until you've heard it screeched out in hideous falsetto by two hyperactive dorkboys in a confined space from which there is no escape at one o'clock in the morning.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I'm going off the album already.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I'd say we were more squawking than screeching, to be honest.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Well, that certainly makes all the difference.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

It's entirely possible - I'm desperately trying to repress the memories :-p

[majuran.livejournal.com]

With accompaniment on the car horn... (which I might have imagined considering I was in and out of sleep at the time... brain defence mechanism kicking in?)

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

No, you didn't imagine it. And if you think you can recall the car swerving around the road because the driver has started drumming on the dashboard rather than steering - well, you didn't imagine that either.

*begins rocking back and forth*