So on a bright note, last night I went to see Patrick Plunkett play at the Troubadour in West London with his new band. It was a tricky setting with a difficult Friday night loud drinking crowd rather than a music crowd but nonetheless Patrick and the guys put on a good show. The set was as usual highly accomplished and there was already a really good chemistry with the band so all bodes very well there although he has loads of exciting challenges now writing songs for a band rather than just a singer/songwriter and adapting his current songs for a bigger sound. Still I know it's a challenge he'll easily master, I don't for one second doubt it.
After Patrick's set another singer/songwriter came on with his band, a South African guy called Roland Albertson. His set was a much more up tempo affair and commanded that little extra attention from the crowd. There were some pretty sparkling moments mainly from Roland's electric guitarist who had some brilliant mesmerising solo's, although the whole thing was a bit tricky to gauge because the sound system wasn't quite right and it was an extremely noisy crowd.
Still after the set I grabbed a CD and whacked it on in the car coming home. Roland's 6 track Legends Of The Sun EP is an interesting mix of songs blending a lot of different sounds it doesn't settle on a particular genre which makes it ever so slightly difficult to connect with it. Don't get me wrong the songs are good, very polished and produced really well but there's an element of "I've heard this before" about a few of the tracks for instance "Picking Up The Pieces" sounds like it's come off the back catalogue of Coldplay maybes. I'm also struggling to pick the emotive element of the songs which I guess probably accounts for my lack of connection to the music.
BUT where the CD actually comes in to it's own is in the very last track Broken which finally lays bare a bit of emotion and is a truly beautiful song which you'd expect from a singer/songwriter. Again it's a totally different sound, back to an acoustic route and it really does showcase a very crafted and talented voice which finally gets exposed to its fullest.
If I had to surmise the CD I'd probably say that as a commercially viable exercise it ticks all the boxes. The tracks feel aimed at appealing to a mainstream musical audience whilst showcasing a number of different styles so if that was the intention then it achieved it definitely. That sounds harsh, don't get me wrong, it's a nice collection of songs and I got to the end of the CD wanting more which is a good sign but nice isn't always memorable.
Still I'd check him out, when Roland refines where he's aiming his music, he could build a pretty good fan-base very quickly and sell a decent amount of records.
