Album Review by EDF
Fresh from supporting Neil Finn during his 2001 dates in the UK, Alex Lloyd returns with the follow up to his excellent BLACK THE SUN album. Produced by Magnus Fiennes, this should at least be just as interesting as his first album. Unfortunately all of the wizardry has been left behind on this album making this a more straight forward sound.
The opening track, EVERYBODY LAUGHING, is about Lloyd’s feelings for his partner and how their giving and receiving to each other will eventually have him “open up when everybody’s laughing”. LOST IN THE RAIN featuring BJ Cole on Pedal Steel Guitar slips into Beach Boys territory half way through with mixing desk effects on Lloyd’s voice. AMAZING, with an added bonus of strings to bring out more emotion from the track, is all about a person who Lloyd finds amazing and there really is not much more to say about the subject matter. You can definitely say we’re not talking about Westlife here.
Unlike the first album, you find yourself struggling to pick up on what Alex Lloyd is singing about on certain tracks, as he seems to be suffering from lazy vocal syndrome, DOWN TOWN being one of the culprits. You can nearly forgive him when you come across the last track of the album, the beautiful acoustic EASY EXIT STATION, “you’re still mine and I’m still yours, there’s no one left to fall behind”.
Yet again Lloyd proves he can still write decent tunes with this album sounding like a progression from his first. At times you also get a feeling that Lloyd might just have something spectacular up his sleeve for the next one and if he can get some radio play, this album just might tide him over until then.
