Thomas Joseph

EP Review - 'Monitor Mixes'

by Adam Reed

After a long winter sitting inside behind drawn curtains, clinging to the radiator, Thomas Joseph makes you want to turn up the stereo, open the window, let the sun stream in and embrace what is hopefully the start of spring. Anything that kicks off with a bluesy hook, like track 1 ‘Streets of New York’, is guaranteed to grab my attention; the cool, rhythmic verse ensures that my head keeps nodding to the very end. It may only be, essentially, a song about a shopping trip to the Big Apple but never has traipsing around stores, viewing overpriced clothes, seemed so cool. ‘Criminal’ is a more gentle, acoustic love song - of sorts. Like all good songs of that genre, it's suitably stacked full of cliché’s but pleasant enough not to let that irritate. ‘Clocks’ is piano-lead and slower still, though thankfully it's infinitely more tolerable than the Coldplay song of the same title. ‘Somewhere To Park’ brings back that springtime feeling. It evokes pleasant images of a daytrip in the singer’s silver Cadillac, presented to us in the style of Jack Johnson. But just when you start to pigeonhole this artist ‘Knaves of the Bronze Age’ takes you by surprise. It lifts the tempo with two minutes of instrumental blues rock and rhythms. The whole package is concluded with ‘A Little While’ which introduces some harmonica into proceedings. It neatly rounds off a solid set of six tunes that won’t stray far from my CD player for the duration of the spring months.