aaamusic | On 23, Jan 2011

Meet Ian Evans – formerly of band Elevenses – a(nother) unsigned, London based singer songwriter. ‘Lapsang Souchong’ is his second solo album, released back in 2007. Emerging after his debut ‘The Post Office Tower,’ it showcased a clear progression for Evans as a songwriter. Whereas the debut was slightly more pop orientated, ‘Lapsang Souchong’ contained a greater degree of experimentation and technical expertise.

Now, the alternative London singer songwriter scene is over-saturated to the point of dissolution. These days any schmuck with a guitar and a smidgen of shameless overconfidence can self-record some substandard, angsty folk on a Mac, upload it to MySpace and self-promote through Twitter and Facebook. Not that there is anything wrong with pursuing your dreams, the problem is simply that since labels became less necessary for a singer songwriter to land a spot on the underground radar there has been a severe lack of quality control.

So can Ian Evans offer us anything substantial? The simple answer is yes, however Evans is not without his faults (or fault, singular, as it turns out). ‘Lapsang Souchong’ displays a level of ambition that is certainly commendable and comparatively original. It’s a concept album stuffed to the brim with references that require outside research to uncover their origins and meanings. According to Evans, his hope was to create “an album that would be a treasure map” and in that respect he succeeded – it comes with a accompanying written explanation for the lyrics. The music is a mixture of pop-folk, punk and prog-rock with a fairly decent level of musicianship.  It’s an interesting listen despite being a little patchy.

What lets Evans down – to point of severe disappointment – is his singing voice. It is, in all honesty, poor. Bordering on excruciating. I understand that his hope is that his everyman voice will appeal to, well, every man, in the same way Frank Turner has struck up a loyal fan base from sounding like one of your mates. But whereas Frank actually has range and emotion, Evans is barely able to hold a tune. Frustrating really, given the potential his experimental folk and intelligent lyrics point towards.

Author: Clive Rozario