Sandi Thom - Smile...It Confuses People

Sandi Thom's route to musical stardom is very much a traditional one, albeit updated for the internet age. Whereas unsigned or upcoming bands used to hit the road and tour until they became successful, Sandi Thom played her "21 Nights From Tooting" tour entirely from her home, broadcasting to audiences via the internet on Myspace.com. If the rumours are true, she was attracting stadium sized audiences by the end of this period, with "crowds" ...
...one decent tune, so could Sandi Thom buck that trend and put out a decent album?

The album certainly gets off to a good start with "When Horsepower Meant What It Said". It's a bouncy pop tune, driven by her vocals and the guitar. There's a slight country feel to it, making it sound a little like something Sheryl Crow would do if she was in a really good mood. You can almost hear the enjoyment Sandi Thom is getting out of ... more

Sandi Thom's route to musical stardom is very much a traditional one, albeit updated for the internet age. Whereas unsigned or upcoming bands used to hit the road and tour until they became successful, Sandi Thom played her "21 Nights From Tooting" tour entirely from her home, broadcasting to audiences via the internet on Myspace.com. If the rumours are true, she was attracting stadium sized audiences by the end of this period, with "crowds" of up to 70,000 people tuning in, but there is now some doubt over this.

Whether true or not, I wasn't overly distracted by the hype, even though I was aware of it, which in itself is a novelty for me. Usually, if something is hyped this much, I tend to avoid it, but this time I was swayed by the sheer quality of the debut single, which had me humming it for the best part of a week the first time I heard it. But so many artists who come to fame suddenly only have one decent tune, so could Sandi Thom buck that trend and put out a decent album?

The album certainly gets off to a good start with "When Horsepower Meant What It Said". It's a bouncy pop tune, driven by her vocals and the guitar. There's a slight country feel to it, making it sound a little like something Sheryl Crow would do if she was in a really good mood. You can almost hear the enjoyment Sandi Thom is getting out of this tune and it's a jaunty little song that gets your feet tapping.

Next up is the debut single and the song that got stuck in my head for a week. "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in my Hair)" is far more laid back than the previous track, largely driven by the vocals, but with quite a driving beat. If you have a portable music player, this is an ideal song to be walking along the street to. The vocal delivery is quite reminiscent of Tracy Chapman, although there's not the same political message, with the exception of a slight dig at Tony Blair.

Things calm down a little for "Lonely Girl". It's more of a ballad and more heavily weighted towards the pop end of the spectrum, without the folk influence. It's more rounded musically as well, with more than just the guitar and vocals this time, like any other pop ballads. It sounds close to something from Amy Studt's "False Smiles" album, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but without the whiny teenage angst, which definitely is.

The pace stays low and the feeling laid back for "Sunset Borderline", which is a simple guitar based pop ballad. There are shades of Amy Studt here again, which is a worry as her album had a couple of decent songs and then went horribly wrong. It feels as if the album has lost its way a little here, as this track doesn't really go anywhere.

Fortunately, the opening to "Little Remedy" is far more upbeat and promises to be another jaunty pop tune. It's not quite as bouncy as the album opener, but it's certainly got some of the same elements, with a slight folk tinge to the music and a backing vocal that could have been borrowed straight from the Corrs.

If there was a slight hint of country before, it comes far more to the fore in the guitar intro to "Castles", which sounds slightly reminiscent of some of the Dolly Parton songs my Dad used to play around the house when I was younger. It doesn't quite descend into a full on country ballad, but the influence is definitely there, albeit with a pop edge. Sadly, this is much like "Sunset Borderline" in that it doesn't really do too much to grab you, which is a shame as it's the longest track on the album, being the only one over 4 minutes long.

As earlier in the album, Thom shows that she has the quality to bounce back from a minor upset like this with "What If I'm Right", which may be the next single. It harks back to the album opener again, with a jaunty, bouncy beat and a slight folk influence, although it's definitely a pop tune. It's a slightly slower track than "…Horsepower…", but no less jaunty for it. The lyrics are well worth a listen as well, as they add to the song's sense of fun, which is confirmed by the ending.

The guitar intro to "Superman" sounds worryingly like Paul McCartney's "Mull of Kintyre" and that's not a sound that changes greatly throughout the song. It's a very simple mid-tempo pop track, but doesn't really do a great deal, apart from the falsetto vocal in the chorus.

Once again, there's a delightful track to follow up a slightly lacklustre one. "Human Jukebox" plays to Thom's obvious strengths, with a slight folk-rock tinge to what is already a decent, bouncy pop tune. The lyrics make it sound like an updated version of Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing", but it sounds more like a Michelle Branch or Sheryl Crow song in many parts.

Sadly, the album finishes with a down tempo number, which haven't proved to be Thom's better tracks. "Time" is again a simple acoustic ballad and again has the feeling of an Amy Studt song. The higher vocal is again in evidence and whilst the lyrics are well observed, it's another quite bland track and it's a shame to finish an album which showed some promise this way.

From a promising start, the album does fade slightly; giving the feel of using whatever songs Thom happened to have lying around. I wonder if she has held back some of her better material, waiting to see what might happen to her fledgling pop career before unleashing them onto the public. If that is the case, then her second album were certainly be worth watching out for and it suggests she's playing the game a lot smarter than your average "Pop Idol" discovered artist, although she does have more freedom to do that.

However, despite the slight up and down nature of the quality of the songs here, it's not a bad album, all told. The ballads certainly aren't Thom's strong point, but they're far from being offensive, settling instead for being lacklustre and uninteresting. But that is more than compensated for by the better tracks here, which are great to listen to and a lot of fun. When Thom is good, she is very, very good and when she's bad, she's not really all that bad.

If you're a fan of pop music with an edge, such as the likes of Sheryl Crow or K T Tunstall, this will certainly be your thing, as it's not too dissimilar to their work, but with a happier edge. If you're into pop music as a whole, you need to buy this album, as it's full of decently crafted pop songs, with frequently intelligent lyrics and a bouncy beat. The only down side is that at only 32 minutes long, it's not great value at the Play.com price of £8.95, or for £8.75 from CD Wow or £7.99 on Amazon, no matter how good it might be. However, prices are coming down elsewhere, with £4.29 the best from the Amazon Marketplace and there being plenty of copies on eBay from 99 pence. Forget the length of the album; this is good enough to be an absolute steal at that price.

If ever an album deserved to put all the hype aside and be listened to on its merits, this is the one. No matter how she came about it, Sandi Thom is talented enough to have deserved her chance at the big time and I think she's done well enough to get another album, which will be the really testing one. For now, don't believe all that you may hear, just listen. 

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