22 Dec 2024
Graeme James - Album Review: The Long Way Home
05 Feb 2019 // A review by jacquiew
The Long Way Home is everything existing Graeme James’ fans and newcomers to his music could hope for. Thoughtful lyrics, beautiful and carefully nuanced production, and enough catchy, foot tapping tracks to satisfy any radio programmer.
James plays all the instruments himself and does an excellent job with all of them. Bass, mandolin, guitar, percussion, fiddle (and more) feature and his impressive clarity of vision as producer keeps all the elements in balance to create a thoroughly well executed and well-paced album.
Night Train provides a strong, rhythmic beginning, showcasing James’ lovely vocal timbre and range. While The Times Are Changing is the first single from the album, it’s the central trio of tracks; The Long Way Home, To Be Found By Love and Western Lakes which are the standouts for me.
Western Lakes in particular is simply exquisite. “Sometimes our words are not enough, there’s silence to observe”, sings James, and it is perhaps the way that James creates a sense of spaciousness in this track that makes it so very evocative.
The Long Way Home is a gorgeous, highly listenable album that many will love. May it soar; it surely deserves to do so.
Rating:
( 5 / 5 )
About Graeme James
“This album has a calm-before-the-storm perspective. It was written before leaving New Zealand when I felt like had no idea what the future held which was both terrifying and exciting. Uncertainty definitely makes for good songs,” Graeme says with a good-natured laugh.
Graeme is a critically-acclaimed artist rooted in folk’s rich storytelling and musical traditions. He furthers the lineage with an imaginative textural approach in which he carefully crafts multi-instrumental soundscapes. Graeme’s dynamically layered compositions feature him playing violin, electric violin, guitar, bass, baritone ukulele, mandolin, harmonica, percussion, and beatboxing. He produces his own albums, and he faithfully recreates his textural tunes live in real time with a loop pedal. To date, Graeme has issued a pair of endearingly quirky cover albums; a record of all originals; and now, his first label release, The Long Way Home. Graeme’s self-released debut album, News From Nowhere (2016), has garnered awards and critical acclaim back home. He is one of New Zealand’s most streamed indie artists, and his shows regularly sell out. Graeme’s total Spotify plays surpass 20 million, with most of these streams coming from outside of his native New Zealand.
Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Graeme James
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