{"id":22320,"date":"2022-01-24T05:30:05","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T10:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22320"},"modified":"2022-01-24T11:20:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T16:20:00","slug":"album-review-novelty-island-how-are-you-coping-with-this-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/24\/album-review-novelty-island-how-are-you-coping-with-this-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Novelty Island \u2013 How Are You Coping With This Century?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Being a musician and recording artist from Liverpool carries with it certain responsibilities. One has to reconcile the fact that their music is made in the shadow of Echo and the Bunnymen (ha). But seriously, much is expected from those who create music in the city on the Mersey. It\u2019s not clear if Tom McConnell is aware of this, but everything about his music suggests that he is more than up to the task. Working as Novelty Island, McConnell is another in the proud tradition of one-person \u201cbands,\u201d creating music that sounds as if it\u2019s the product of a very, very good collective of musicians who are all tuned to the same musical wavelength.<\/p>\n

How <\/i>Are<\/i> You Coping With This Century?<\/i> opens on an acoustic note, with a sound reminiscent of the Iveys (later known as Badfinger.\u201d The song\u2019s arrangement unfolds subtly, and the song takes on a character eerily reminiscent of Emitt Rhodes (who, of course, was often compared to a certain Liverpudlian bassist).<\/p>\n

McConnell\u2019s vocal harmonies might well be his most formidable asset. But that\u2019s certainly not all he has to share. Sinewy, economic lead guitar lines adorn his tunes. His stylistic palette is staggeringly wide: \u201cCowboy on a Bicycle\u201d is country rock, British variant: think of Brinsley Schwarz or Unicorn. And the lovely keyboard textures that open of \u201cMichael Afternoon\u201d suggest Pepper<\/i>-era Beatles, but then the tune heads in a different direction, one that suggest \u201860s Kinks meeting up with their early \u201880s sound.<\/p>\n

McConnell isn\u2019t afraid to craft spare, simply arranged tunes; his melodies are strong enough that they don\u2019t demand filigree. \u201cLadybird\u201d is a prime example of this. The wonderful and aptly-named \u201cJangleheart\u201d is a bedsit analog to The La\u2019s \u201cThere She Goes.\u201d The parlor room piano of \u201cBlackcurrant Sky\u201d gives way to a pop-sike arrangement that suggests Orgone Box, albeit with some delightfully twangy electric guitars woven into the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitrus Wood\u201d would have fit nicely on Wings\u2019 Wild Life<\/i> or Red Rose Speedway<\/i>. \u201cListen\u201d evokes thought of Pilot crossed with Gilbert O\u2019Sullivan. \u201cBlank Wine\u201d has a breezy, \u201870s AM radio pop sheen. \u201cI\u2019ll Sleep in April\u201d is a sweet bit of ear candy, a supremely sturdy melodic work with some bass guitar that will call to mind \u201cSilly Love Songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closest thing to hard rock on How Are You Coping\u2026<\/i> is \u201cTurtle Rock.\u201d It\u2019s an effective excursion, and underscores the range of abilities that lie within McConnell\u2019s bag of tricks. The album closes on a more contemplative note, though, with \u201cYes.\u201d It\u2019s a quiet, understated and finely-wrought number featuring close harmony vocals and a spare instrumental backing. The song brings things back to that sweetly innocent Iveys vibe that opened the record.<\/p>\n

Start to finish, Novelty Island\u2019s debut full-length is an intimate and luxurious listening experience. And it should make the city of Scousers quite proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a musician and recording artist from Liverpool carries with it certain responsibilities. One has to reconcile the fact that their music is made in the shadow of Echo and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,65],"tags":[4752,4753],"class_list":["post-22320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-novelty-island","tag-thomas-mcconnell","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22322,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22320\/revisions\/22322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}