James Erswell – East Of The River

James Erswell East of the River

This compilation of studio recordings from Erswell opens with the familiarly baggy pop of Feel Good Sensation, it’s got a nice Happy Mondays-style chorus, whilst it’s joyously played there’s a little scarcity of that same euphoria in Erswell’s dry delivery, far better is his vocal on Shine Bright which has more of a hazy, laidback vibe with its ‘Ooh la la’ backing vocals and Clinic-like vibe. Walking In The Sky meanwhile has a spacey Stone Roses vibe even down to the rather vague lyrics; ‘Shine your love light down on me/Stay true to yourself.’ It benefits from nice production, with squelchy guitars burbling away alongside the breezy piano melody.

There’s a notable shift in the recording quality on Star That Fell From The Sky with the instrumentation sounding crisper and Erswell’s vocal has a smoother, rounder quality; it’s another scatty shuffle, similar to Jape with lyrics delivered in a easy-going ramble. In Your Pockets is an acoustic guitar driven number, ‘So come on now tie me to the mast/Show me my place’ with shades of Simple Kid, and it’s when skating on the same ice as these artists that Erswell sounds at his best, rather than, say the ‘Madchester’ soundalike tracks that populated earlier releases. The balance of his lead vocal with a falsetto and murmuring backing vocals gives this track a great, bluesy campfire feel.

It’s a shame then that we’re back in that Northern sound on Whatever She Needs, it’s not a bad song per se, it’s just a bit too derivative too make much of an impact, especially when it plateaus into a dreary beat and ‘Da doo dah’ vocals. The same can be said for Needle On The Groove, though with its layered vocals and wandering electric guitar there’s a bit of The Beta Band about it, whilst She Paints Pretty Flowers throws in some electronic pan pipes to enliven the rather dull repetition of the title.

It’s a continued shame, for me, when Hold Up Your Hands continues the trend of the last few tracks, especially after Erswell delivered two distinctive and different sounding tunes, the problem, by this point, is that there’s very little variety to these laidback retro sounding tunes. This record closes with You Got Soul which is, predictably, more of the same. Whereas, at least, on the first few tracks on this LP there were memorable choruses and some good instrumentation, these final tracks feel like the kind of ecstasy fuelled comedown jams that probably sound awesome when you’re off your face, but, here feel more like watching a slightly embarassing documentary about the ‘scene’ twenty years ago, what’s most frustrating is that Erswell is undoubtedly better than this.

So, this is a record of two halves, the first five tracks are good, the next five are poor, if you’re starved of Inspiral Carpets then maybe those tunes will fill the spaces, but, for me, they feel repetitive and in thrall to other artists, when Erswell should be moving beyond that, or, adding his own inventiveness to that nostalgic sound, because he proves on the early tracks here – and on previous releases – that he is more than capable. Chopped in half this is a solid EP, as a ten track record this is a frustrating listen.

[Rating:2]

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