Take it easy!
Here we have the debut album for the talented Justin Sandercoe, whom is also known as Justin Guitar due to his free guitar lessons on YouTube. He is also credited with teaching both Katie Melua and Kathy Dennis to play guitar whilst on tour. ‘Small Town Eyes’ is his debut album and packed with chilled and laid back tunes.
Album opener, ‘Forevergreen’ is co-written with Katie Melua, and will have you led back on the grass dreaming of springtime. The guitar is gentle and the hint of background melody glides over you. Justin has a voice that is fairly gentle and unassuming. I wonder whether it is perhaps a little to middle-of-the-road as he chooses to sing in the medium to high range for the most part, and even then the notes are not belted out. ‘Love And Levity’ has a little more oomph to it and almost breaks into a rock ballad, with additional drum beats in the background. Then things chill for the instrumental of, ‘From Katie’s Window’.
The music has a heavy reverberation that sounds like it may break into trip-hop, however a beat never appears, which is a shame as I feel that this is what the song is lacking. The aquatic guitar laps around in a meandering melody and the vocals slowly pull it together, but the tempo is very slow. Then in, ‘Cutting Out’ we still have a slow tempo but there is a nice crisp sound of a drum in the background and the guitars strum rhythmically. The song is a little more in the vein of Bob Dylan. It’s catchy and well written. Then things go slightly folk in, ‘I Know?’ that sounds a little like Chuck Ragan if his voice was smoothed out with silk.
With a harmonica at the beginning, ‘Imperfect’ is a great blues/folk song that reminds me of Blind Melon. This is a song that Justin’s voice really sounds the best. He dips low and then sings out loud and proud. If the album was full of tracks like this with different tempos and arrangements then this could well be one of the best albums of the year. It’s a great track. ‘Into The Blue’ is a beautiful track and is one of the better chilled tracks. ‘Pity The Rose’ plods along nicely, but does sound like some of the songs before it. It falls into the same formula of slow tempo, gentle vocals, and guitar, whilst later in the song it does build up and end well.
Justin is a fantastic guitar player and you can hear his fingers gliding up and down the fret board, something that I really like to hear. In ‘Page 99’ the music is beautiful, and it’s interesting to note that some of the best songs on here are written, sung with the majority of the instruments played by Justin himself. This one only has the additional upright bass played by Tim Harries, whereas the guitar, drums, mandolin and chordette are all played by Mr Sandercoe. ‘Falling Next To You’ is a nice mix of pop/rock with some slide guitar too, then ‘Waste This’ jumps around on a smooth ride that once again is slow in the tempo department. It’s thoughtful both musically and lyrically as Justin ponders about not wasting opportunities. The album finishes with the instrumental song of, ‘Broken’ which is a slightly majestic showcase of his guitar skills.
The album as a whole could well be descried as beautiful, gentle and hypnotic. It floats around never quite being easy listening, nor rock, nor blues or anything else. These can be good or bad things. As a showcase of talents it works well, however for me there are far too many songs of a low tempo that makes the album one to be put on in the background when relaxing, or possibly at a dinner party. This could well pave the way for a more ballsy follow up album, although I suspect that Justin will stick to this formula, and do you know what? I think his fans will be more than happy with that.