Andy White offers Twee in bucket loads with his new album 'Songwriter'.
Following the recent ‘Garageband’ Belfast-born songwriter Andy White is back with his latest album ‘Songwriter’ released 28th September. Now based in Melbourne, the album was recorded in Vancouver, Canada, with members of Po’Girl, the Be Good Tanyas and Neko Cases band, who all contributed to ‘Songwriter’ in their own way.
There’s a mature feeling to ‘Songwriter’. Not so much in the sense that Andy White has ‘come of age’-despite this being his tenth album, it’s just that the lyrics are based around events intended for the ears of an older audience. Having children, settling in different countries and the timeless issue of love and faithfulness are laced throughout each song. You may then, expect that this maturity would make for intelligent and well crafted song writing. However, the lyrics are often clichéd and weak. Showing that while this may be White’s tenth album, he still finds it difficult to create anything new or interesting.
While some songs such as ‘Valley Of My Heart’ and ‘Why Don’t You
Stay’ show that White and Co can play well, produce to a high standard and understand the components of creating a song, that doesn’t always spell for a successful album. ’Songwriter’ is essentially background music. It’s the type of thing you can listen to while doing other things, because, it never grabs you, it never sticks in your memory, even with the upbeat country-Gaelic styled rhythms and melodies. The funny thing is that the best track out of the full 14 is ‘First And Discovery’, the slowest and softest of them all. It’s the only song that makes you stop, and actually want to listen, proving that it’s not about the same noisy exuberance that will get you noticed, but the ability to tell a story with good harmonies and real sentiment.
‘When I Come Back’ is a track filled with hopes and wishes. White talks about the beauty of wanting to hear the Beatles for the first time, living in Paris and great political change, but the sweet message of the great crusade for love and peace soon turns sour, as the song deteriorates into tweeness of the highest order. This continues throughout the whole album. Overall, there is simply not enough here. ‘Songwriter’ is bland and provides little to hold the interests of the average listener. While Andy White can play and has a good voice, his lyrics are clichéd and he doesn’t seem to have progressed or created anything new, even after ten albums.