Sam Brown's voice, Dave Rotheray's tunes and some effortlessly cool musicians are the big selling points on this second HOMPESUN album. With strong independent northern credentials and some deep industry connections (Sam's dad Joe Brown was my favourite English singer in the earliest of early days, and Dave writes the tunes for THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH) it's a thoroughly agreeable slice of luxury songsmithery.
The tone is a country folkish (oh yes, pedal steel!) lightly funked lilt through ordinary bloke observational wit. Well aware of its own potential for disappearing up the arse end of its own irony, the one thing you couldn't accuse the album of being is "cool". It has an almost studied refusal to be clever, allusive, poised, intellectual or postmodern. The first song blurts right out with some of the clumsiest lines I've heard for a while. It's a bit like your good-hearted mate in the pub writing drunken lyrics on a split beer mat. "Your sweetness is infectious / But its good for my health / 'cos every time I taste your love / I start feeling sweet myself. / Like a wonderful disease / Your sweetness will increase / Every time you give it to someone else". …hmm.
But once I'd got over the shock I was OK. Once I'd settled down and stopped choking on the gruesomely bonkers imagery I could relax into the sheer pleasure of the rolling tunes and Sam Brown's rich and expressive voice. Dave's way with words is not the way of the Masters. But he writes what he's thinking about, and Sam, the tunes and the band make it a lot more than OK.
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"Whistlestop Blues" with spookily out-of-tune piano and Clare MacTaggart's warm violin is a highlight. A sing-song melody and a straightforward vocal delivery give testimony to the power of simple music to move the heart. "Cosy Island Lullaby" hints at Kate Bush's complexity, but keeps it homespun and unaffected. Even the seagull cliché sounds goosebump right.
"The Reluctant Sailor" has a blowsier 40s feel, with a hint of dance band and Sam Brown's jazz voice getting a good trip round the block. By now I've got over that first chorus and I'm really loving the album. I can go back and pick up the open-hearted intimacy of "If We're So Happy" and the old fashioned piano solemnity of "Italy".
So, a romantic album of edgy songs written by a shy bloke and sung by a beautiful woman with a great voice. Says it all really. Give it some time. And listen out for the Hammond intro to "Effortless Cool" itself. It promises, then delivers, a grand little tune with the slightly dodgy lyrics that we've all agreed to cherish as genuine English tongue-tied nice guy honesty.
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