Gordon Harrow

Musical joy can be hard to capture. Especially when considering an artist you’ve only ever heard play live. There’s so much that could go wrong and so many decisions which can have an insurmountable impact on the finished product. Gordon Harrow, a name you may not be familiar with but which you should seek out, has obviously considered these issues too.

Harrow has been kicking around the fringes of Glasgow’s live music scene for a while now; quietly tinkering away on his acoustic guitar, whilst writing an impressive amount of high-calibre pop songs, reminiscent of Crowded House at their best. Taking his time to consider the music he wants to cement into his first four track EP has clearly paid off, with rewards abundant from the first play of ‘Dream, Girl’.

The beauty of the EPs mastery initially lies in Gordon’s way with words; a sublime mix of storytelling, which is filled with quietly introspective moments and harmoniously rich textures. The record swims around the edges of melancholy, not quite allowing the waves to lap up and drown us in the downbeat.

None of the tracks outstay their welcome; lasting just enough time for the hook to catch in your head and stay there. ‘If You Want To’ and ‘Over My Dead Body’ are introspectively sublime, the former shifting gears to its subtle mid-way crescendo with an impeccable sense of pop pace. Picking up the tempo slightly is ‘Walking Backwards’; a song which comes with a buoyantly unpretentious melody and sneaky little singalong hook. ‘Wild Life’ wraps up the EP, with its gentle guitar strums and lush harmonies.

With production duties on the record credited to Ken Stringfellow, a name most frequently associated with The Posies and R.E.M, it’s not difficult to find the quality on the record. Harrow clearly already had the craft of song writing down before this release though, and the opportunity of wrapping his songs in a more luxurious bow has done them no harm whatsoever. If anything, it makes the dreaming all that more heartfelt.