Thomas J Marchant - Honestly This Is Honesty

Hear The Track Here

And now the continuing adventures of Thomas J Marchant, one time Artist Of The Year (2007 't'were) and all-round songwriting machine who will not be averted from his need to vent all over us. Aaaah, but he does it so well, doesn't he? A style, I might add, that has made him quite a popular chap out there in the internet hinterland (and of course Soundclick) Mind you, it's hard NOT to like Thomas's approach which is simple and to the point. It's the song that counts, not the technical and/or musical side, and even there I can indeed meet him halfway because of the strength of his songwriting which IMHO has got considerably sharper since his recording capacity was tragically reduced.

Damn those computers!!

Like a great many Soundclick veterans, I like pretty much everything Thomas does, even though I may - every once in a while - voice doubts about this or that. Usually to do with the sound and/or production which, to be fair, Thomas hasn't much control over. Musically this track is much more muscular than some of his recent offerings, including piano, bass and drums as well as the obligatory acoustic strumming along. Considering his usual musical skinniness this is positively obese and let me tell you it takes some getting used to. It wasn't until I'd heard it often enough for it to become familiar, that I figured out that the lo-fi vocal is actually made that way intentionally. Kinda works too...

So if lo-fi music isn't really your thing, you already give this musician a swerve anyway right? If the answer to that is yes, then I can only feel pity for you, See, the one overriding factor in all of Thomas's work is how human he comes over. I like that he shares this with us, regardless of how its musically couched and - as I say - given time this might even melt the hardest heart. Whenever I played this song though, I kept seeing the ghost of John Lennon flitting about. Whether that was from the music (very early Lennon) or from the directness of Thomas's honesty is open to debate, but I suspect that it's the music, stupid. I wonder if this augers in Thomas's 'electric' period? :)

Rough sure, but feel the quality. Highly Recommended Indie.