"This Town" by Robert James Grey
Review
If you feel that my starting my review of the new Robert James Grey single, "This Town" with a reference to a track ("Chaos") which appeared under another name on the very first volume of ‘Hot Music Live Presents' back in December 2018 (and it had previously been released as a single in 2017), is a bit strange, then I can understand why that might be your first reaction. But please bear with me.
In fact this is the same musician: one who was riding high in esteem & popularity back then (including playing on the Main Stage at the Godiva Festival and he was a local radio regular) and the long gap between releases not to mention a new stage name may require almost a career relaunch: though I'd like to stress the undoubted continuity of his talent. Certainly he himself very much sees this release as a form of debut & to be honest I think it works both ways. Old fans will be delighted by his return: new ones will be attracted to the new music on its own merits without career context being terribly important to their enjoyment (see below for proof).
In fact, a master of the haunting and atmospheric ballad form, several imitators have emerged in that time, though without reaching the same heights. He's back to reclaim that crown.
"This Town" comes out next Friday (March 28th) on Coventry's own Love and Madness label (which has previously seen releases by ‘Hot Music Live Presents' featured artists like The Giraffes, Pandora, Jack Blackman, Two Giraffes, Dean MacDonald and Sam McNulty).
It would be interesting to hear from him about the journey he has been on since we last heard from him, but if this song is representative of where he is emotionally these days, then whatever he may or may not have passed through to get here, he seems full of contentment right now.
Kicking off this phase of his career with something so positive is to be applauded: the song of finding himself where he wants to be & celebrating the joys of community is presented as simply as his previous work, with his own piano & vocal skills all that are needed to say what he wants to, yet this is not a stark piece like some of his earlier work, it's simple but with the warmth of the domestic hearth.
It takes confidence not to over elaborate arrangements or production but as I tend to repeat, I find these approaches distance the listener from the heart of a song & dare I say it, seek to distract from inherent weaknesses in composition or performance. Robert certainly does not run any risk of that.
Quite apart from my own reaction to "This Town", I think it's worth mentioning another indicator of positive response. Last month he supported Loophole, Permanent Daylight & Luminae at The Arches: three very dynamic & happening bands but ones with (on paper) a very different audience from his own, but speaking to some of them since then, they were really impressed & won over by what they heard. Let's face it, appealing outside one's own more obvious fanbase is pretty impressive and this response definitely speaks to his perception of debuting again that I mentioned earlier and augurs well for the success of doing so.
In fact you can judge both the song and his current live show for yourselves the day after tomorrow (Friday 21st) as he's launching his single at The Yard in Coventry from 1830 to 2030 (make sure you note the times & don't roll up too late) and it's with his band too. That should be revealing of where he's heading given his history of being basically a solo artist.
The other good news is that he has other material he's planning to bring out this year to further satisfy his audience, culminating in an album in the autumn.
