The Beat Surrender

Didn’t think I knew of TD Lind until I read up on him on the internet, last year he supported James Blunt, played at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, the 2006 Wireless in Hyde Park and performed a song for the Christmas Drama special Driving Lessons with Julie Walters. Not a bad start if this is his debut album. The promotion information details his travels from playing the pubs in London to piano in Paris, blues in Memphis and New Orleans to finally settling down in Kentucky, this is quite some journey.

The opening track Radio Proposal is a little disappointing to start with, however like all good reviewers I persevered and it grew on me. A good pop song with a strong rememberable chorus. This must have been the track that caused the promotion people to liken him to The Feeling. It did however leave me feeling it was a little too manufactured, not perhaps his natural style, but ok. It was also his first single release. Falling moves easily between pop and almost power ballad at times, nice orchestral backing, however as he plays all the instruments not sure how this will go down when done live.

Lets Get Lost has an unusual backing, after several listens it definitely grew on me. So gentle and easy to listen to, but still had meaning without being over cheesy. Her is a different sound, very happy lyrics, not sung in a currently favoured style, a little reminiscent of the 60’s. Very bouncy track, happy and jolly, a good track to sing along to. Last Kiss has a really heavy boom boom beat all the way through, it sounded a little old fashioned in style. I couldn’t listen to many tracks in this style but perhaps one on the album was acceptable. It was also a bit chaotic in the tempo moving from slow to fast without any warning or seemingly justified, but what do I know I couldn’t write a song if I tried.

Milestone is a nice guitar acoustic track, very easy to listen to, with wonderfully written lyrics. One Fine Day is a change in style big time, we now have a good rock track. Nice beat, great guitars, really liked this track but what you gain musically you lose on the lyrics. Not as meaningful and not much of a story to tell. However this is a track I could definitely hear being played on the radio, it even had harmonica! (I’m so easily pleased). Over half way through the album and all in all its not too bad.

The next track is Come In From The Rain, it has a good intro, mix of country and rock. The lyrics appear to be about drugs and trying to persuade someone to give them up for there own good. Very incisive lyrics, marvellously put together, takes a couple of listens to fully appreciate. The next track was the most unusual on the album, Jesus Christ is an example of another style, this time gospel mixed with a little country. Very strange, a modern day hymn almost, lots of “Hallelujahs”. Not really, my cup of tea but shows TD Lind can and will have a go at any style and not make a bad job of it. When the next track started the first thing which springs to mind is a very young Elvis (not that I remember this first hand you understand, my Mum told me!)

I’m Not Worried had a sound straight from the Deep South, blues/rock and roll, it was a little slow for my liking but what a voice. A Bird Flew is another beautiful, meaningful song, very gentle, telling a sad story. TD Lind has a wonderful way of just slightly changing his vocal quality to suit the mood of each song, expertly carried out on this track. I Don’t Miss You starts with lovely twinkling piano, a sad love song, unfortunately its very slow kept waiting for him to break into song. All the way through it felt like it was the introduction to something else. The last track was called Disco Boat, thought the title had given away what to expect, how wrong was I!

Long quiet intro, very blues influenced, felt like I was in that smokey bar room with him. I didn’t however like how this had been put together. It sounded like I was listening to a radio station that wasn’t quite tuned in properly, the volume and quality kept moving about. This for me was the only track, which had a bad sound, I may not have liked all of the others but they were well produced and engineered.

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