Songs For You Truths For Me - James Morrison

...I like some of his songs previously and I adore Broken Strings so I thought I'd give it a try. This track starts off disappointingly, the beat is just awful, but his vocals make up for it loads. The beat in the song just seems out of place with the lyrics, he uses a keyboard throughout and a drum beat every now and then, with the keyboard and it really just makes me cringe.

At the moment I really do hope that the rest of the album ...
...is one of my favourite songs on the album, I can't say much bad about it at all, and it's beautifully sung and beautifully produced.

An amazing track, just as good as some of the other greats on the album, it's a bit too slow for my liking, it does seem to drag, but that's me looking for a bad point. A gorgeous track and one to definitely check out. The lyrics aren't about love this time, thank god, they are gorgeous however and they ... more

After the success of his debut album Undiscovered, James had 5 singles in the Top 40 charts and his album was No 1 in Britain. He won quite a few awards along the way, but it seemed he disappeared for a while. Then recently I heard his unique vocals on the radio, singing alongside a woman. I knew from the start that I would love this song, so when I got home I checked out the rest of the album on YouTube and decided to buy it. Here's my review.

Who Is James Morrison?

James Morrison is an English singer/songwriter born in Warwickshire. In 2006 he debuted with his first single "You Give Me Something", this song made James a household name and then he released his debut album Undiscovered.

==Track List==

Track 1- The Only Night- 3/10

As most of you know I'm a big rock fan, and James doesn't fall into this category, but I like some of his songs previously and I adore Broken Strings so I thought I'd give it a try. This track starts off disappointingly, the beat is just awful, but his vocals make up for it loads. The beat in the song just seems out of place with the lyrics, he uses a keyboard throughout and a drum beat every now and then, with the keyboard and it really just makes me cringe.

At the moment I really do hope that the rest of the album gets better, or I might have just wasted even more money on a crap album. I'm really struggling to sit here and listen to this whole song, it's pretty awful I have to say, despite the fact that his vocals are raw, they don't make up for the crap beat, as they actually go along with the beat. SKIP.

Track 2- Save Yourself 5/10

This track is much slower and his voice is very unique, but like the previous song, there's nothing special about this song. This song unlike the previous track is quite pleasant to listen to, one thing I'm not a fan of is un recognisable lyrics, I found it quite hard to understand what James was saying in the verses and I'm not really a fan of this and it puts me off straight away.

His voice was nice, but it's nothing like his other songs, I know he can produce better, so I'm waiting for something special to happen. Hopefully in the next track, but this track is probably best to start off with, you really need to skip the only night, but I will probably find myself skipping this track as well.

Track 3- You Make It Real For Me 8/10

I think this may have been released as a song before, I actually thought it was off the previous album, but apparently I was wrong. This is what I mean by special, this song is beautiful. All it is, if I hear rightly is James's vocals and a couple of guitars and a few other instruments put in. He is best when he sings acoustically and here he shows why.

His voice is beautiful within this track, he has something raw and unique about his voice, it sounds like it shouldn't sound so good, but you find yourself being pulled into it and loving his songs. You Make It Real for Me is no exception, it's soft, beautiful and preformed amazingly. Another thing I always tend to overlook when I listen to James Morrison is his lyrics. Most of them of course make me wanna vomit as they're all about love, but he's a great lyricist as well as performer.

A beautiful song and it almost makes up for the dismal crap that was the first two tracks of the album. Check it out.

Track 4- Please Don't Stop the Rain 9/10

The song starts with a strong drum beat and then James comes in humming; now this sounds like my kind of music. He really shows off his talents within this song, he is usually brilliant in most of his songs, but he really does work well with a strong drum beat and in this song he shows how.

His voice almost sounds different now that it's in front of a strong beat, unlike You Make It Real for Me, where it was pretty much done acoustically. The lyrics as well are beautiful in this song, yes again they're about love, but I think we're gonna get that throughout the whole album so I'll just let that slide for now. But the song as a whole is very beautiful and well worth checking out. I think James should have dropped the first two tracks and started with these two, as they are 100x better than those.

A great track with a lovely beat throughout and James' vocals are on top form. They work really well with the song.

Track 5- Broken Strings 10/10

The reason why I brought the album, the song starts almost accapella with James singing along and then different beats join in, from the bass to the guitar and it all almost builds up into a crescendo for the chorus. Broken Strings is then taken from James Morrison and Nelly Furtardo begins to sing after the first chorus. I've never been a fan of her voice before and it does sound a bit too RnB for my liking, but it works brilliantly within this song. She does have the tendency to do what all RnB singers tend to do now, with the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE at the end of each sentence, this gets on my nerves loads and it almost ruined the track for me.

However they're vocals work amazingly well together. James has a very unique voice, it's very deep and raw, and almost boring sounding in a good way, and then Nelly's vocals are very high and almost piercing and together they have produced a beautiful song, which works amazingly well.

The lyrics are love again, but I really didn't think about that within this track, I was thinking what beautiful and meaningful lyrics they are and how well they are sung by the two singers. This is a beautiful song; I think it's going to be a classic for both Morison and Furtardo.

A beautiful song, which shouldn't work, but it really does. Well worth checking out, I'm sure you'll love it.

Track 6- Nothing Ever Hurts Like You - 4/10

I didn't want to leave Broken Strings, but the album must go on, and what the hell has he done here? It's awful. The song is almost 60's I find it quite hard to describe the beat but it's pretty awful if I say so myself. James's voice is not up to par in this track either, it's good, and I don't think I've ever heard a bad vocal by James, but this song is almost painful to listen to, nearly as bad as the first two.

This is another skipper track, you may like it, but for me, I found it way too painful to listen to and such a disappointment after the brilliance that Broken Strings was. Such a shame that they have created an awful track.

Track 7- Once When I Was Little 9/10

I really do hope I love this song; it starts off acoustically with just James and a soft guitar. This is how James should keep all of his songs, make sure the beat is simple and soft, and the song will work brilliantly. I think this is one of my favourite songs on the album, I can't say much bad about it at all, and it's beautifully sung and beautifully produced.

An amazing track, just as good as some of the other greats on the album, it's a bit too slow for my liking, it does seem to drag, but that's me looking for a bad point. A gorgeous track and one to definitely check out. The lyrics aren't about love this time, thank god, they are gorgeous however and they really work with the keeping of the track. James sings them beautifully and produces a gorgeous track.

Track 8-Precious Love 7/10

With the keeping of the album, this should be a terrible track, however it's not. It's not brilliant however as it's nowhere near unique enough to be brilliant. James sings again with just an acoustic guitar and some backing singers and the chorus is quite annoying.
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Despite all this it's a very pleasant song to listen to and definitely not as bad as some of the others on the album. I think this is one of the problems with James, despite the fact that he's got a unique voice, I complain when all the songs sound the same, with just the acoustic guitar and his voice, but then when he tries to change things up, he does it so badly it becomes quite painful to listen too. This is a no win situation, so I can't complain about the fact that this song is not unique at all really.

Track 9- If You Don't Want To Love Me 9/10

For some reason from the first note of the song I knew I would love it, again the song is about love, but this is true love song. It's sung beautifully by James, he really shows off his vocals and his vocal range within this track.

The name of the song is what caught my eye and this is one of the songs that made me buy the album when I listened to it on the internet. I think this song is a lot unlike his other tracks, it's a lot more upbeat with the drum beat and it doesn't just rely on an acoustic guitar to work, he has managed to change things up here and for once it really does work.

It's beautifully sung by him and the lyrics are just gorgeous, really worth checking out the lyrics as they are really beautiful. I was surprised I like this song, as it is way too slow for my liking usually, but the beat behind it is so upbeat, despite it being a slow song, it works amazingly well and I really did enjoy listening to this track. One that's definitely going onto my IPod, and if I remember I'll put a link at the bottom of the review to the YouTube video.

Track 10- Fix up The World for you 7/10

The song starts and I cringe, it's a trombone, but thank god you don't hear that again and it does become a great track especially through the verses, I have to say I'm not a fan of during the chorus, as it just doesn't seem to gel as well as the verse does.

The lyrics are beautiful, but not brilliant, so many of the other songs in the album are 100x times better than this song; the chorus can become quite annoying and almost painful to listen to. I really thought this song was a great shame, because I could hear the potential but the chorus and the start of the song really ruined it for me.

An okay song, but not one I'll stick on my IPod and not really a track that I would recommend.

Track 11- Dream on Hayley 7/10

It starts beautifully, especially his voice. The lyrics are very meaningful and this song almost 'makes' you listen to the lyrics. He doesn't mince his words together like he does in other tracks. Everything just seems to work beautifully in this track; he kind of lowers his voice within the chorus when he sings 'dream on Hayley'.

This song is not just all high points, I don't think this is the sort of song that will ever be released as a single, and if so I don't think it'll go too far in the charts. It's a beautiful song, but it's only listenable once, I've listened to it quite a few times now and it does almost get on my nerves now I've heard it a few times.

This is an annoyance almost as it really is a beautiful song, but just not greatly listenable.

Track 12- Love Is Hard 6/10

It starts off with an upbeat guitar piece and then James's voice joins in, and I'm still unsure about this track. Yes it is pleasant to listen to, but I found myself wondering what was going to happen next, there didn't seem to be anything special about it.

He does join his words together with this track, which isn't too much of a problem, but the song for me works, but just not as brilliantly as it could of. For the last track on the album I was really expecting something a lot more special than this track.

Check this track out and tell me what you think, as I might just be annoyed with the other crap songs on the album and have decided to slate this one as well. It's a real beautiful track, but there just seems like something is missing to make it brilliant.

My Opinion

This album for me is quite mixed, I am not usually a fan of this type of music, I do like the music, but I would rather listen to something with a heavy guitar and drum beat any day. I think, well I know that I brought this album on impulse after listening to a few of the songs, I don't regret this, as my sister seems to have shown an interest in Broken Strings, so I'll give her this album for Christmas instead of keeping it for myself. :D Saves me buying her a proper present.

Do I like the album? I found it very pleasant I have to say, I think if you're driving along in the car, this album would be quite nice as background music, but when you listen to it like I have just done, it becomes just one piece of music as despite him being original, his songs all almost role into one. He plays to his strengths which is the acoustic guitar and maybe a soft drum beat, and this is good as he knows that the track with that on will be a hit, but when track 3,4,5,6,7 etc all follow this same beat, the songs role into one and it becomes quite hard to see where one begins and where one ends.

I think this is a shame as he really does have talent, and he shows this in many of his songs, but they do all almost sound the same and for me this puts me off the album slightly. I think it's quite lazy when every song is the same, you need a little different on the album to make it shine.

I do think Undiscovered was a lot better than this album, I have to say. It had a lot more 'hits' than I think this album will have, I think I can think of a few that will make it big in the charts and I think he's released a few of them already.

His vocals are what make this album for me. He does have a very unique voice, it's very deep, and there doesn't seem to be anything special in there as it's quite a monotone voice; however it really does work with the songs he sings, he has something special there and he knows how to push it and make a good song with his voice.

For me the best track on the album has to be Broken Strings, it was the song that made me buy the album in the first place and it is by far the best song on the album. The collaboration of Nelly and James was just a brilliant idea, I wouldn't have thought of it, but it really does work. Especially considering their voices are two opposites, but together is just sounds beautiful and I think the song will be a classic just like Chasing Cars etc etc.

His Voice

His voice is just amazing; I really think he has something unique about his voice. I don't think he could sing anything and his voice would sound good, but he has found his niche and when he sings in this genre it just tends to work.

His Songs

I do believe his first album Undiscovered was a lot better than this album for tracks; however the tracks on this album were very good when he stayed within his niche. When he doesn't they become quite painful to listen to and it almost ruins the album if I say so myself.

Lyrics

Despite the fact that they're all about love, he's a great lyricist and the lyrics on this album are just brilliant. I think he really does manage to write meaningful songs which really do make the album what it is. This is even despite the fact that it's all quite soppy lyrics; this does get on my nerves when this is all that artists sing about. Put some more things into your lyrics, you don't have to just talk about one thing.

Should You Buy The Album?

I would say no, despite the fact it's good, I would say download the good tracks off ITunes as the good tracks are really good. I think the album could have been a lot better, however that doesn't really matter, and the album is good and well worth checking out the good songs.

Check out Broken Strings especially this track is just gorgeous to listen to. A well put together track and one that I'm sure will be a classic down the line.

YouTube Links

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aluwpslpygQ - Broken Strings

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQ5CZyb9pI - If You Don' Want To Love Me 

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