Now this whole one man and his guitar thing is all good. I like it. The simplicity of it reaches out to me. Its not over complicated like so many things are in music now. Oh and it means I can sing along and pretend I'm really famous *ahem*

Pete Murray is probably best known in Australia but will be known in the UK to anyone who watches a popular Ramsey Street based Soap as his songs are littered throughout it.

The album flys up to this hemisphere at 41:16 long and throws a complete and utter mixxed bag of standard at us.

TRACKS (11)

FEELER (4:21)

A title track of an album normally has to be good. A title track of an album that is also the opening track better be darn good. Now as normaly for a One Man and his Guitar type song, this has Pete singing over himself playing. However there is also a hint of an organ playing now and again in the background and also some funk style extra guitar work on this as well. Its not bad to be honest. It rolls along and is a nice little toe tapper. It goes on for 2 or so minutes at the same sort of pace and then has a nice little organ solo before going back to what it started as. There is nothing to fault this song but its not gonna be your sing along favourite on the album. It gets a nice little rocky outro to it and thats all well and good. But as I said, the title track of an album thats also the opening track, better be darn good and I'm afraid this one is just "OK"

BAIL ME OUT (4:03)

The problem with this song is you just don't feel as you've finished listening to the first track. Its all one in the same. If there wasn't a 2 second gap between songs on my CD I'd almost not of noticed. The drumming is more prominant which is the only thing I can say about it without just repeating what I've just said about Feeler. It doesn't even have a strong chorus, which in the catchy guitar pop world is a major drawing point.

SO BEAUTIFUL (4:39)

Things are slowed down for us here. Some echo added to Pete's voice to show this truly is a love song. You'd never have known it from the title. It waits a full minute to step up to drums, choosing to build it up with simple strumming and a noise that I don't want to call synth as that sounds wrong but it sure wasn't a normal instrument. The organ is back on this one and it all works together well. Its a nice love song. The video would probably have him walking alone through his ex's appartment or something like that, you've all seen video's like that before right? Thats what this songs like. I don't mind this song but its not a strong as it could have been.

LINES (3:00)

The pace is brought back up in whats almost close to a rock tune. The acoustic is gone for a fuzzed up guitar and heavy drumming. A strong chorus backed up by Pete's very strong voice. He's actually quite a good vocalist. The song being only 3 minutes long makes me feel he didn't have enough confidence in his rocky side and sort of bottled it. Which is what this song feels like. The chorus is the main shouting point of it. Nothing special to see in the rest of it though. It rolls over me too easily.

FREEDOM (3:16)

This song is why I bought the album. Its so good its just not fair. The guitar work is almost not there. On stereo speakers you pretty much hear the guitar from the right ear and Pete singing from the left. There are times I wish I could play this on an open mic night and pretend I wrote it, thats how much I like it. Its understated in the best kind of way. You listen to it, nothings really happening but its just all there. Where's my acoustic and where's that flyer for open mic Mondays.....

PLEASE (3:23)

Strings, lots of strings, ooo more strings.....and an organ. There you go, thats how this opens. Then its Pete singing above the organ as the strings vanish somewhere. Another strong track, almost giving me faith in this album again after its poor start. 1:42 it really takes off into a great vocal song that, unfortunately you could see being performed at pretty much any pub on a band night. I want this to do more for me but it just seems unable to.

FALL YOUR WAY (3:44)

Its at this point in the album where Pete's voice has seemingly gone from strong to simply annoying. Every time he sings, no matter what the backing, it sounds the same. More use of the organ in this one works well as a backdrop with a good mix of guitars and then guitars cutting out. Oh and this song has a flute. The need to list the instruments is coming from me trying to listen to anything happening in the song instead of his voice sounding like it has done for the last however many minutes of my life. Musically this track is excellent, I love it. I want it on instrumental.

MY TIME (4:08)

This one has a great little bass vs drums opening to it. Its written well. The organ player flirts with becomming a major part of this track but knows nicely when to make it a big part and when to slip back away. Some bongo's and a piano add to make this a really relaxed slow one. Its nearly at the sense of relaxing I get from Lounge Jazz. Infact I'm so relaxed by this one that not even Pete's voice is grinding on me anymore. It all seems a little out of place on this album but I'm glad its been recorded. Sit in the most comfortable chair you have, grab a large drink and melt to this one. Its not all bad.

TONIC (3:00)

The Lounge feel is still there in this one. Its sped up a bit but there is a feel of early 90's america too it. The now strong variety of instruments is expanded by a washboard, a marraca and a tamborine amongst other things I can hear. Its not sing along, its listen along again. It pains me that the album hasn't been a nu-jazz album (nu-jazz, genre inventing) because Pete seems really good at it and he has a great house band. Musically great again. Lyrically not the best.

NO MORE (3:08)

Where as the last song was not lyrically the best. This one is dark and meaningful. This is reflected in the amount of instruments. Apart from that one instrument that I couldn't work out before, there is only guitar on this one. Its not catchy, its not sing along but it is deep and it is worth a listen. A lot of people will relate with this song and thats why I am glad its on there. I like songs that will help people.

TEN FT TALL (4:28)

A nice upbeat one to end on. I actually do like this song as well. A wide, but different, assortment of instruments can be found on this one as well. Pete tries to take his vocals to the gravelly end of the spectrum in a Cobain style but can't quite pull it off. Some great piano work and a very workable riff which is duplicated across guitar and piano respectively. A very tight song.

VERDICT

I can't help but feel glad that this album is over. As much as I always start to enjoy it more towards the end, I always give it the benefit of the doubt and listen to the first half every time which gets me to a state of anger by the time its finished because I want it all to be in the same style as the end of the album.

In a market place that is so flooded by this kind of thing I feel that Feeler just doesn't stand up to the competition. It has some good songs on there but nothing that makes it a worthy buy over something else.

The sheer amount of instruments on the album can't even hide the fact that is souless in most parts and completely unoriginal throughout.

I am torn on whether to not to recommend this album because I feel that parts of it should not be missed, where other parts should be avoided. The cold hard fact being that there are just better albums out there in this style and people like Howie Day and Joshua Radin are much better at doing the same thing.

Tries hard but comes up short.