Preaching From the Pews: Ed Tullett

edtullettMySpaceFaceBook

‘Young and upcoming singer-songwriter’, it’s become quite a cliché, and indeed the most oversubscribed method of music making today; the one man with his acoustic guitar who looks to yield everything of themselves towards their audience and achieve some new frontier of artistic purity, and no doubt work their way through a preposterous amount of ladies along the way. And of course, all of this is to be accomplished with little more than their tender lyrics and a minimalist approach to instrumentation as tools.

So, as I listen to To Transfigure and Solve – the newest instalment from Ed Tullett – a ‘singer/songwriter’ as young as seventeen, I wonder what exactly it is that separates the true greats, who have excelled in this field of music over the decades, from all the hopeless romantics who never make it out of their hometown. And of course, as is the central purpose of this article, I ask if Mr Tullett himself shows the early symptoms of such genius in his own work.

From the very first listen, the album shows a lot of promise. For an independent, unsigned artist, the production standard is exceptionally high, as exemplified in “Disciple Hands”, which is, all in all, probably the most successful track on the record. That said, “Table Top Bruises” does still go on to demonstrate, in an unblemished and incredibly raw way, the exceptionally high standard of this young man’s incredibly poetic lyric-writing.

As one would expect, these lyrics, often written in second person, are very personal in their focus. However, they work best in songs such as “Pine Box to Bedside”, where Tullett refrains from the sort of lyric-writing which could become so close and self-absorbent as to smother the listener. He keeps a refreshing distance from himself and the subject matter, helping offer a certain sense of wisdom that glistens through his words and belies his real age. Neither though, it must be noted, is this delivered in the sort of preaching manner in which so many young, fleeting musicians fall into the trap of doing, as they look to reign down a nest egg of immediate ‘truths of life’ from their self-imposed pedestal to us, the ever so grateful reciprocators. This album is far too honest and understated in its approach for any of that.

Whether the intimacy and intensity of his other tracks will begin to suffocate you is something that I suppose is based on taste. But consider for one moment, the thousands of jaded middle-aged men up and down the country who continue to turn up and play to a handful of people in the local pub’s ‘Acoustic night’ every weekend, all playing this exact brand of acoustic singer songwriter folk rock, all with a fledgling dream to capture something, something separate from the drudge of their day to day lives, a single moment of euphoric recognition, and how, though futilely optimistic until the end, they never do get anywhere. Well, this album details exactly what Mr Tullett has over all of them; genuine, organic talent. If this talent is adequately nurtured, we can hope to be hearing a lot more from this young man in the future.

Ed’s latest album, To Transfigure and Solve is released on Monday 11th July.

  1. what a douche bag comment. “poo head” mature.
    anyway.

    ed is brilliant. he deserves so much success. his music is unqiue and breath taking.

  2. Mate, you’ve called yourself ‘poo head’…I don’t think anyones going to take anything you say seriously to be frank. Fair enough, you dont like Ed’s voice, but he’s actually trying to make something of himself rather than sitting at a computer and slagging off people for no apparent reason. So simmer down.

  3. Ed’s okay. obviously being a good singer isn’t important as many of the best can’t sing as x factor would want them to. (Anthony Kiedis, Kurt Cobain) i think ed needs to find an original style before he’s going to get anywhere musically. too many little kids like him these trying to break through these days. maybe the supermarket is where he’ll end up, who knows. good luck mate.

  4. Not in a mean way, I don’t think this guy is that great. Kind of reminds me of everyone else trying to write music. It’s not terrible, but it’s not special at all. It’s different when you know them, but from an outside perspective I think this is the case.

    But I’ve seen worse get signed, so good luck.

  5. Personally, I don’t really see the appeal in these songs, I find the music nice to listen to, but the singing I find lets it down and doesn’t match the music’s standard. I’m trying my best to sound constructive here and not knock it but I agree with felix and he needs to sound more original vocally. IMO.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases.