CHARLIE SIMPSON: Young Pilgrim.It took the songsmith six months holed up in his London studio to produce these 12 tracks to show that there is someone around with the ability to come up with songs that can capture a real sense of vintage warmth. As they unfold, many change shape and texture and usually there’s some kind of hook to perk the lugholes up – a soft stomp here as on new single Parachutes, a neatly placed harmonica there and the final track Riverbanks erupting in a guitar, piano and string-driven crescendo to close the album with an epic flourish. Charlie cherishes harmonies with all the intensity of a small child clutching a favourite soft toy – and it shows. They’re his comfort blanket.
THE BIG FIGURE: Laugh Like Clowns.Glasgow schoolfriends Sam West and Calum McCann started their musical lives as blues band The Fortunate Sons who went on to tour the world. They seem to have discovered unrequited indie rock yearnings – hence the name change – and so this sets off in a totally new direction with the first couple of tracks sure to go down a storm at any half-decent music festival due to their organic sense of urgency. They’re off somewhere fast. But as the album unwinds, so does the consistency as things take a very different and sometimes even obscure turn. At one point you wonder if they’re metamorphosising into what Bruce Springsteen would have sounded like if he hailed from Glasgow.
