Released: 3rd May 2019
Rating: ★★★★
The long-awaited debut from the artist known to everyone but his mum as Ten Tonnes, is the perfect moment to blow those winter clouds away and start praying for summer sunshine. With an ex-Maccabee co-producing and an ex-Kaiser Chief amongst the co-writers, it is a record with a rich indie pop heritage that dances its way through the life and loves of one Ethan Barnett.
Sharing the same love of classic pop rock with bands like The Kooks, the album couldn’t fit any more huge, festival-ready singalong choruses and nagging melodies in if it tried. Debut single ‘Lucy’ is given a polish and an upgrade early on, meanwhile if you could bottle up ‘G.I.V.E.’ and ‘Counting Down’ and spray it over the country, then everything would probably feel a whole lot better. ‘Look What You Started’ and ‘Silver Heat’ might ramp up the volume, even chucking in a cheeky f-bomb or two, but it never stops feeling like you’re in the middle of the friendliest party in town.
While most of the record is built on the adventures of someone who is very-nearly-but-not-quite lucky in love, it is also the tale of life in a town that you want to escape but miss like hell when you do – ’Nights In, Nights Out’ and ‘Wake Up’ adding some more weight as they yearn for something more. By the time ‘Lay It On Me’ rolls in like an encore though, it is back to the sort of banger territory that will find its natural home when we are all singing our hearts out in a field somewhere this summer.
Jamie MacMillan
