Artist:
Title:
Open Book
Type:
Album
Released:
22 Sep 2009 (US), 29 Sep 2009 (UK)
LTTM Rating:
Your Rating:
Review
It's taken me a while to sit down and write this review, not because I'm being lazy, but because I wanted to do this album justice. Call it writers block, call it what you like, sometimes the words I write on here don't do the albums the justice they deserve. Let's get the point over early here, on first listen I liked this album, enjoyed it and had it on continuous play for a week or so. Then the more I listened, the more I started to love this album. The tunes were great, with great melodies and songs that...
Read More It's taken me a while to sit down and write this review, not because I'm being lazy, but because I wanted to do this album justice. Call it writers block, call it what you like, sometimes the words I write on here don't do the albums the justice they deserve. Let's get the point over early here, on first listen I liked this album, enjoyed it and had it on continuous play for a week or so. Then the more I listened, the more I started to love this album. The tunes were great, with great melodies and songs that got stuck into your head that you would sing all day. I just felt that if all I said in the review was those lines it wouldn't really capture the brilliance of this album.
So the next few moments I will try my utmost to put over in words what and how I feel about Andrew Greer's album Open Book, by picking out some fantastic moments from the album.
We shall start at the start, the album opens with And To Our God which begins with what sounds like an old Church Organ, but don't panic this album isn't all organ music and it kicks into a great song that has a very catchy sing-a-long chorus with it's well blended soft piano and acoustic guitar mix, complimenting each other very well.
Vocally Andrew has similar tones to Ryan Adams and Mat Kearney, these tones come through dramatically in the Jazz Pop sounds of You Came Pulling Through and Some Other Time, which both have a Michael Buble twist to them. This to some can be seen as a positive or negative thing, depending on your view of Michael Buble, but please don't let this put you off two great tracks.
What I have realized over the many years of listening to and buying music is, sometimes when you purchase a new album you get home and start playing the album yet sadly after 15 minutes you're meant to be at a meeting, over at a friend's house or it's time for tea, and you have only had the opportunity to listen to the first four tracks and missed the other 8. You might then take the CD and play it in your car and the album starts surprisingly at the start and by the time you made it to your destination you have only had the opportunity to re-listen to the first four tracks and maybe another few. I'm not saying this happens for everybody, but you do tend to listen to the same first few tracks off albums more than the latter. But from a personal opinion I would more than encourage you to really try and get to the end of the album, because on Open Book you have some wonderful gems in the second half.
The main gem I'm making reference to is Learning To Live which has a distinctly similar sound to The Elms and The Who, two great bands and personal favorites of mine. It has hints of The Who track Substitute.
The album does have its softer moments and album ballads in All I Need, which has some great violin work which add to the atmosphere of the song. This has to be the track in which Andrew's strong vocals come through the most and really lead the track. The other ballad is Mais pour Amour and is one of those must hear tracks. It's sung in French and not being a fluent French speaker, it could be about anything, but after reading up it's based around Psalm 94:18, so don't panic.
I hope I have done this album justice with my attempt at putting words together to make this review, but at the end of the day sometimes just saying, "The songs are great, The melodies are great, the album is Great" is the best way to sum up a great album.
Review by Jono Davies
LTTM Rating 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
Mais Pour Amour
Learning to Live
You Came Pullin Through
