JACK SAVORETTI // ALBUM REVIEW


Jack Savoretti - Before The Storm

JACK SAVORETTI – Before the Storm (Fullfill Records) 

RELEASE: 4th June

This is the third album by Jack Savoretti but I have to admit that he is new to me. On the plus side it means that I get to listen to this album without any prior prejudice. On the down side this is supposed to be a fresh, new and exciting direction for Mr Savoretti and that doesn’t really make me want to listen back to his first two albums. On first listen this is fairly inoffensive, acoustically lead, good time music that would probably work in the bar scene in an American teen TV series. But then I read that sentence back and that in itself is offensive enough. I mean, if you like Paolo Nutini’s album tracks and you’re not bothered about remembering any of the tunes minutes after listening to the song then this might be up your street.

Savoretti’s voice is pitched somewhere between Paul Young’s huskiness and the forced sincerity of Nickleback’s Chad Kroeger (and yes, I did have to look that up) but even I, an average chap, can see that he is what the girls might call ‘a fittie’. The trouble is that so many of his songs seem to be self pitying odes to how he doesn’t deserve his girlfriend (Not Worthy) or the life of someone living rough (Vagabond) and none of it is very believable. There is also some sub-par lyricism on display; surely Lifetime’s “Now the sun is bound to go down but that’s alright. It happens every night. Tomorrow it comes back around and that’s OK. It happens everyday” is from the Rebecca Black School of Writing Lyrics to Point Out The Blindingly Obvious?

This album does have one or two redeeming features though which are mainly the interesting instrumental arrangements (Take Me Home) and the production quality which gives some of the songs a beautifully expansive quality. Overall though, this album has left me with one overriding feeling and that is the feeling you get when you’re in Primark and they start playing popular hits over the stereo except that it’s not quite the original version and, even though you never even liked the original version, it still irritates you until you put down that £3 duffle coat and shuffle off to TK Maxx. It’s not a terrible feeling but it can properly ruin your Saturday.

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