CALM AS THE COLOUR - Ticket To Liberty CD-EP

Soft and satisfying melodic indie anthem with a solid centre and a warm heart as the first track, “The Rain Must Fall”, clearly illustrates. The vocals, lead, harminies and multi-tracked, are the heartbeat around which the gorgeous flow of the song revolves. The arrangements instrumentally are simple and best kept that way as drums become the central hook and deep bass, backdrop of organ and barely there guitar provide the textural subtlety. The vocals are so emotive in a laid-back sense, that you can't fail to be captured by their deceptive mix of deliciously fragile strength. It's a wonderful song , short and not a second wasted. “Velvet Sunburst” is less overtly atmospheric, but every bit as excellent. Opening with crisply strummed acoustic guitar and touches of ringing electric guitar, we get a song that echoes the best that Dundee's Alan Turner's put out as a solo artist and stands up well alongside his previous EP. The rhythm section ploughs in neatly and provides the drive below the melodic mix of acoustic and electric guitars, as the vocals, this time just the lead vocal, are wondrously in tune and sensitive but with a yearning strength to them as another superbly heartfelt arrangement lights up every bit of your life in the warmest possible way, again simple, but oh so effective. Finally, there's the title track, as harmonica counterpoints acoustic guitar undercurrent and deep bass, as the almost taut yet emotive vocal provides the song with an atmosphere of wistfulness, almost like a song you'd sing if you were leaving a place or a person for a long, long time, and really from the heart, completing a trilogy of songs and arrangements on a CD-EP for which the words exquisite and excellent are only too appropriate.

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