reviews / 2007

TOM MCRAE - King Of Cards

Name: TOM MCRAE – King Of Cards
Item: King Of Cards
Rating: 6
Author: Gianni Candellari

2007 (V2)

folk-pop, songwriter

by Gianni Candellari

It's tough when you fire off your “masterpiece” right at the start…

Tom McRae is an artist who burst onto the scene in style: his self-titled 2000 debut album enchanted many, picked up various awards and launched him as a new talent in the world of folk-pop songwriting. His subsequent albums, however, have never fully convinced, and this fourth effort confirms itself as the classic "nice" record, lacking that extra something capable of setting it apart from the work of so many other craftsmen in the genre.

The English songwriter has a lovely voice, delicate and vaguely androgynous, yet at the same time powerful and intense, and here too, as on his debut, his musical expression remains that of a very intimate and personal singer-songwriter folk-pop, but the dark, pained atmosphere that characterized that album from seven years ago has decisively disappeared.

There are substantial songs here: “Keep Your Picture Clean”, for instance, with its skewed, vaguely jazzy pop melodies, but also “The Ballad Of Amelia Earhart” and the closing “Lord How Long”, wonderful in its delicate despair, are two truly remarkable ballads, sincere and deeply felt.

The rest, though, remains good quality but without interesting ideas; everything, so to speak, is run-of-the-mill, and so “King Of Cards” turns out to be a decent effort, but without the insight and inspiration that made the debut a record to warmly recommend.

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16/05/2007

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Gianni Candellari, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition