aaamusic | On 05, Jun 2013

Northern musician Louis Jones a.k.a Spectrals has released his first album Sob Story.

‘Let Me Cave’ is the opening track. It has a good combination of indie rock guitars and nice a vocal melody, but the song doesn’t seem to progress, and it feels like is missing a big hook or even a more catchy chorus. It is clear that are some good ideas, but the production is very conservative. In ‘A heart behind’ and  ‘Something Too Cry About’,  the bluesy-rockabilly  influences shine through.  The first one has some really good and catchy lyrics, being my favourite line  of the whole album: “selfish is my middle name”

‘Karaoke’ and ‘Sob Story’ sound like something I heard a million times; nice guitar elements, but not very compelling. Jones has a great timbre in his voice, but I do not particularly like the intention in which he delivers the songs; he seems to be trying too hard. ‘Milky Way’ and ‘Friend Zone’ are a bit more of the same.  The vocals sometimes sound a bit out of tune.

‘Limousine’ – the best of song by far, has a lot of potential, but again the production sound too poor and lacks creativity. ‘Blue Whatever’, might be the most complete track of the album. But again the singing doesn’t sound natural, and that takes away the charm.

The last tracks just sound the same as the first ones. The album as a whole has a couple of songs with potential, but not there yet. It sound like a good demo, but not something that could compete with whatever else is out there. The  idea of recoding an album when only a couple of songs are good enough, seems like a waste of money and time.

I genuinely think Spectrals have a lot of potential, but there is definitely a lot of work to be done, specially in the song writing area, before heading back to the studio.

★★★★★

Laura Carvajalino