![\"bobby_long_ode\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/bobby_long_ode.jpg\")
At only 30, Bobby Long<\/b> has a deep catalog of work. After three self-released albums beginning with 2009’s Dirty Pond Songs<\/i>, he signed with ATO Records and began a string of releases for that label: two EPs to date, and two full-lengths. The latest of his albums is Ode to Thinking<\/i>, released in 2015 on Compass Records. Now comes a vinyl version of that set, with the shortened title Ode.<\/p>\n
Nominally a folk-based singer\/songwriter, Long has a good ear for melodies, and he moves beyond the voice-and-guitar simplicity of folk, overdubbing his vocal harmonies and adding subtle touches of other instrumentation. He applies his hoary, gruff vocals to melodic songs, and the result is shot through with a yearning sincerity. Long is British (born in Wigan, near Manchester in northern England) but little in his vocal delivery, writing style or arrangement sensibility suggests he’s anything other than an American singer\/songwriter. (These days he lives in New York City.)<\/p>\n
On the more rock-leaning tunes, keen listeners may Karl Wallinger<\/a><\/b>‘s World Party<\/a><\/b>, or Neil Fin<\/a>n<\/b>‘s Crowded House<\/a><\/b>; \u201cI’m Not Going Out Tonight\u201d has a feel halfway between those top-notch writers and a heartland Americana-flavored rock of Tom Petty<\/a><\/b> or prime era John Mellencamp<\/b>. Elsewhere \u2013 and mostly \u2013 he hews closer to a straighter Americana vibe, as on the sentimental \u201cSomething Blue, Something Borrowed.\u201d The arrangement on \u201cTh Dark Won’t Get Darker\u201d is the sonic equivalent of the cinematic technique of backing slowly away from the camera’s subject, revealing more eith each passing frame.<\/p>\n