Elly Roberts reviews
Thomas Bromley: Two - Nine - Five
Distributed by
4 Real Records
- Cat.no: SYN295CDA
- Released: April 2006
- Rating: 4/10
Being a music graduate doesn't mean you have the qualities for a successful music career.
Twenty two year old Thomas Bromley's Two-Nine-Five hasn't
lived up to the PR hype.
As a serious singer-songwriter, in the possible
mould of Sweden's Robert Post he's created an album that has its moments,
though too many are forgettable. Overall, the sound is American, with
excellent production that shines through. In his favour, he plays quite a
few instruments - that's nothing new these days.
For a debut, he's bravely
having a go, but as a Brit he's out of synch with his peers, because the
music is way beyond Joe public's pop tolerance. Admittedly, there's plenty
of variation on offer, ballads like Out There and AOR rock-riffs - Bye The
Way. He's even managed to through in some bluesy licks - Mark My Words, but
lacks the quality to make any significant impact. Home and Daisy prove to be
the standout songs of the ten, and that's about it.
Technically, it's
difficult to criticise, other than nothing more than your average Radio 2
playlisters, which is the only foreseeable avenue to recognition. Vocally he
exhibits a fair bit of gymnastics to a masterful degree.
He's not your
Damien Rice or David Gray, so pigeon-holing him is quite difficult, on the
pretext he's different.
I've heard worse debuts; then again I've heard better.
The full list of tracks included are :
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
