Review Summary: Steadman's debut is definitely arrogant. And definitely brilliant. One of the best albums ever, actually.
Steadman's debut-album certainly is arrogant. And brilliant. This piece of contemporary rock really, really is wonderfully carried out. This album has a surprisingly broad musical sound in addition to borderline genius lyrics, not to say genius lyrics; period.
Simon Steadman manages to do something not many writers intends to. Most modern lyrics-writers in rock music tries to write complicated words to describe simple things, events and feelings; whereas Simon Steadman writes simple words about complicated things, events and feelings.
This album will, musically, challenge you. It might require some listening to get you real hooked. But it really is WORTH listening to over and over again. The music could remind you off Britpop at its best meeting folk rock meeting those big epic movie-soundtracks. All in all, it's just plain beautiful. Just beautiful.
Now let's go through the album, track-to-track.
Cut Me Loose
It opens beautifully arrogant. Punchy and catchy, "Cut Me Loose" definitely will catch your attention. Wonderful music, and a great passionate vocal performance. It really prepares you for the bittersweet symphonies to come.
Let Down
And on track #2 it gets even more catchy. Not so much punchy, but catchy. Really catchy. The verses are dangerously well carried out, the chorus is really smart written, and the music is very accessible. But don't give in to the temptation of putting the CD player on repeat just yet!
No Control
Because now... we get even more serious here. This track starts off as brilliant as the others do. It keeps Loser Friendly's magic hold of your attention. But then all of the sudden, from nowhere... your mind is BLOWN AWAY. Suddenly an explosion of violins, and this most passionate beautiful voice that Simon possesses cries out "
Changin' seasons/got my reasons"/changin' seasons/well, I got my reasons/I've been here before". It's magic. It's wonderful. So mellow
Life of Leisure
Then we get to this track, which keeps the pressure up there. Simon admits being "{i]... an underachiever[/i]" who's "
Livin' a life of leisure". It's all really hypnotic and wonderful. Especially the outro is quite passionate. This album really is all about the passion.
Oceans of You
Now a minor change of style. A more psychedelic approach this time. Steadman demonstrates being capable of playing complex music, making it sound simple, accessible and catchy. Whilst Simon's lyrics really cages you at the same time.
World Too Late
In this track Simon sings about a movie, and that he would like to "
Call it "a world too late"". Beautiful, touching lyrics performed by a soft and absolutely wonderful voice, over the brilliant guitar-riffs and a sweet rhythm-section.
Satellite
Now a bit more psychedelic again. Mellow beautiful vocals, but a bit complex music. This kind of is an album-filler, that isn't really an album-filler. If you look on it as a song that contribute to the album having a variated sound and atmosphere - it's an album-filler. But seeing as how you when thinking of "album-fillers" would think of songs that you listen to once in a while, but prefer to skip through - this isn't. It's a song you'll wanna hear over and over again.
Whirlwind
One of the very most catchy moments on this album is the opening of this song. A cool, catchy, mellow acoustic guitar-riff that takes you away to distant lands, with Simon's voice being more mellow than anywhere else on the album. What more can you ask? Extra-ordinary beautiful song in which Simon states that he "
can never change your mind" - and he certainly "
can never be your kind". Lovely unprecedented lyrics. Just such a sweet, pretty song.
No Big Deal
The best song ever written. The best song. Period.
Short-Term Memory Loss (STML)
STML starts off with a nice little violin thingy. Really nice and comfortable for your ears. Then - BANG! Where the hell does that catchy guitar come from? This song possesses the maybe most catchy verses of all the songs on the record. Just catchy catchy catchy.
Saviour
Here Simon "
feel[s] like a saviour". This song is quite similar to "Satellite". A bit hard to describe. A bit hard to grasp. But beautiful nevertheless.
Love/Hate Everything
Why, oh why can't all modern rock'n roll be like this? This is modern rock as it should be! Fantastic guitar-riffs, edgy vocals.
Come Alive
With this marvellous song this album comes to an end. A sweet, cozy album-closer. You hear Simon's chair cracking as he leans backward - playing a beautiful guitarpiece, with his voice real soft.
Loser Friendly is definitely passionate. It's definitely big. It's definitely bittersweet. It's definitely loser friendly.
Top album. You should really download it. It is free, and legal on http://www.steadmanband.com
And in time, track it down and buy it. This is a buy you most certainly won't regret. A must-buy actually. You'll end up listening to this album more than you can ever imagine. A most memorable album, that anyone interested in good contemporary music is likely to enjoy.
PS
I apologize the over-zealous uasage of terms like "beautiful", "wonderful", etc. There's no way around them when reviewing this album.
