Time Of The Blue;
It feels like he’s going back to his roots, and it’s lovely
to hear. Don’t get me wrong, Dark Bird Is Home and There’s
No Leaving Now are brilliant albums – Dark Bird Is Home is my
favourite album from him – but it’s awesome to hear his old style returning
back into his music. Time of the Blue feels like a
crossover of both styles, it’s not just him on his own picking away at his
guitar – he has some help giving even more life to the track and giving his
part even more drive; a pianist, guitarist, brass players – but him picking
away at his guitar is back, it feels more prominent, as though he’s found the
style that fits him perfectly.
His voice
is more refined than it used to be, it’s still got it’s rough edge but not to
the extent that his first albums had – that’s something that kind of faded away
as he released more and more albums, especially by the time he released Dark
Bird Is Home – that rawness is still there, and the familiarity between
his guitar picking and his voice make this track feel like he’s found his way
to the middle ground of his work.
He’s
outdone himself on this track – the chorus is lush with his falsetto, something
that the track had been building to the entire time. The first appearance of
his falsetto adds this new level to the track, the musicality of the track
doesn’t track but his voice gives it that extra drive. His falsetto
demonstrates and presents that extra raw emotion to the meaning of the song as
he sings: “Oh, please don’t doubt I will
get this, I love you / It’s just the time of the blue”.
The
accompaniment that’s clear in two of his albums prior to this, is apparent in
this track too. It’s much subtler, letting his voice and guitar take the lead.
It’s a gradual build of accompanists – first a chordal accompaniment from the
pianist with the first introduction of his falsetto, the second addition is at
the second appearance of his falsetto with addition of the brass players and
second guitarist, etc. It’s a great, almost unnoticeable build up throughout
the song that is made to sound effortless – it all fits perfectly.
It’s what we’ve been waiting for –
we’d missed his old work just as much as we’ve loved his new releases and now
this is the beautiful combination of the two. If you’re new to The Tallest Man On Earth this is just
as good a place to start as if you we’re starting from his first release – you get
the best of both worlds (but I still wouldn’t skip the rest, he’s released some
stunning work). Have a listen to the track below:
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