A new album by Lonely Tourist (aka Paul Tierney), a Scottish guy based in Bristol but singing in a Scottish accent – (it’s obviously socially acceptable now in other parts of the UK – is this progress?)
LT has made limited incursions from afar into the Scottish music scene since leaving the country and dissolving former act Odeon Beat Club, but still has some potential.
It’s confessional, strummy and at times very maudlin, just the ticket really… with Tierney at times alone but also backed by a full band on a couple of surprisingly full-on outings.
First song ‘Shouting at Weather’ has a good tune, some rather cliched lyrics about “life being a series of complications” etc, and then goes for the singalong chorus/outro, a bit too obvious for Betty I think.
Second song ‘Ballad of Paul Tierney’ tells the true story of LT’s namesake, a promising footballer who has a few ups and downs, and is a good story, gathering some interest on the football social media apparently – this will go down well with a live audience, again some fairly obvious chord changes and the inevitable “footy fans” singalong at the end – hmm.
Other tracks include some more bizarre takes on modern life – ‘Fly on your Windowsill’ has a Creosote-esque tone as the titular insect accuses the protagonist of all kinds of misdemeanours, reading The Sun (which he claims he doesn’t – ooh) and examining picture specials of Kelly Brook, indeed missus, and it also crowbars in a sly reference to ‘I Am The Fly’ (classic 1977 Wire track) – very clever.
There’s some fairly traditional folk renderings in a lot of the songs and a lot of thrumming bass and acoustic build-ups, a bit reminiscent of the Coral’s first album at times – no bad thing though.
‘The Day We Died’ has some Elbow leanings and is altogether more sophisticated than some of the other tracks on a second listening – it also has some very effective instrumentation which takes it up above the bar for this artist – and could be a hit, given the right soundtrack or TV series (that’s how we do it now).
There’s a misanthropic take on other people’s happiness and weddings and the like which falls a bit flat – ‘Friends Fail’ – Betty appreciates the sentiment but it’s a bit plodding, and more songs about drinking – ‘Ten Green’.
There’s the castigation of former (or current) bosses at call centres on ‘Clydebank 360 Degree Feedback’ – quite effective if a bit throwaway.
There’s also a massive rock-out bit unexpectedly near the end on ‘Another Statistic’ – it’s also quite effective and has squiggly guitars, a f— off solo and is also quite brief – well done.
Last couple of tunes are again a bit confessional, not up to the scratch of the best tracks but they are probably closer to LT’s own biographical themes of leaving… things, so fair play to him.