Album background and Tom's commentsThis is Tom's own review of the album...
Tom Milsom has written and performed a debut album that breaks all the rules, from the cheery, self-deprecating title, Awkward Ballads For The Easily Pleased, to the fact that not a single guitar was used anywhere in its production, yet somehow it all seems to hold together and end up being actually rather good.
The songs are weirdly humorous, featuring such oft-sidelined topics as hereditary disease and dead cats and often branching off into wild flights of fancy, novel lyrics and complicated rhymes that leave the listener feeling more dazed and confused than ever. (Can a song consisting mainly of the word 'meow' even make sense? Somehow Milsom manages to make it so.)
Despite being just eighteen years old, this album is full of emotional insight and clear musical proficiency almost to the point of arrogance - right from the offset, it is clearly different from any other music being made at the moment, from the first strum of the ukulele to the album's bizarre opening lyrics in Milsom's clear and oft-wavering voice (I've never eaten a lobster/because I've seen them in their prime). There are no whiny guitars, there are no angst ridden lyrics, there are no real problems or even emotions tackled in this music as such, and yet somehow it comes across as a very emotional album that will leave you feeling considerably happier than when you started.
For all its little scratches and bumps that have been left in, whether intentionally or not, as the third song says, "imperfections make you beautiful", and with Awkward Ballads, this is most certainly the case.
Tom Milsom, January 2008 |
