As the blurb points out, Hans Chew’s music explores the existential. ‘Unknown Sire’ expands on the themes of his previous albums, ‘Tennessee & Other Stories’ (2010) and Life & Love’ (2014), namely a questing to find the meaning in life, love, death and rebirth.
If it sounds like an album that’s heavyweight and challenging, it most certainly isn’t, opening with the piano-based blues boogie of ‘Easy Money’, a track more likely to inspire toe-tapping than chin-stroking contemplation. The mellow country of ‘Tell Me’ and ‘Oh Where’ is easy enough on the ear, but doesn’t exactly demand the listener pays attention. Chew’s lyrical style leans toward poeticism, but he’s hampered by some laboured rhyming (‘Early Light Waltz’ pairs ‘light / bright / respite’, and his philosophical ponderances are largely centred around asking why this, that, or the other happens.
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On the gospel/blues number ‘My Heart Will Overflow’, he turns to the Lord for answers, but none seem to be forthcoming, and he’s left shrugging his shoulders and clapping his hands with ‘I Don’t Know Maybe’. Which pretty much sums up my feelings toward this album.
Hans Chew Online
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