Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tracklist: Sean Rowe - Time To Think

New Yorker Sean Rowe, last seen in this country touring with Noah and The Whale in late 2009, is the possessor of one of those deep baritone, warm while sonorously expressive voices that can never be put to use in light, carefree songwriting. Guesses as to who it's most resonant of range from Bill Callahan to Gil Scott-Heron - his US label Anti- reckon Leonard Cohen, but that's clearly just the first deep voiced singer they could think of. Anyway. Rowe would have made a great soul singer, but his chosen oeuvre on debut album Magic, out now in the US but not til 25th May in the UK (and it's been hanging around tiny labels since mid-2009), is detailed storytelling songwriting with blues and Springsteen echoes, recorded rewardingly close to the strings and voice, expressively creative even when raking over those old love and displacement chestnuts again. It's a tremendous, tremulous album that rewards repeated listening to delve deeper into the gothic heart of darkness.

Sean Rowe - Time To Think by antirecords

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