Thomas Neptune - Down To Earth EP

Hear The Track Here

Another new name to me from CA based PR company LaFamos who have introduced me to some terrific music over the past year or so (Repeater, Darius Lux, Dom Liberati, Marc Blackwell etc) so the quality they are representing certainly makes this reviewer take them seriously. Thomas Neptune (no relation to the god, or maybe he is...) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriters in - I guess - the fine LA tradition. Which is all well and good if you happen to like California's version of the genre and I have to admit that I've never really favoured that sound/style. Doesn't mean to say that I can't appreciate a finely crafted, professional piece of music regardless of my own personal tastes, and Down To Earth is a very nice piece of work indeed.

The four tracks were produced by Thomas and co-producer Mike Geier and, technically, this is as good as it gets, about as commercial a sound as I've come across lately - especially if you like songs with a hefty swag of Americana in it, lyrically in particular although the music is decidedly American flavoured too. Hence my caveat in the last paragraph; while I liked track one, The Good Times, it's style will be something you will have heard a lot but that doesn't stop it being a quality track. btw, don't go by the You Tube video of the song, that's a live acoustic thing and nothing like as powerful as the studio version. Unbreakable (track two) also gets a live acoustic video and again I would point you to the recorded version which are miles above what is on display in the videos. Really good song too, as it happens and one of my faves from this set.

We're Beautiful and My Ohio (where Thomas hails from btw) complete the set showing that Thomas Neptune has a handful of excellent songs, well performed and beautifully recorded and - in a perfect world - he would have a record deal already. However, it doesn't seem to be about professionalism and a talent for putting out good material does it? I know a lot of my lo-fi freak friends will not appreciate this, it's quality innit... OK, on a more personal level I've heard a great many tracks just like these and regardless of my feelings about the quality, it's a very crowded field out there - especially in this genre - and I fear that Thomas will struggle to get his music across. That would be a crying shame because - as I say - the material and setting are faultless, but hey it's a cruel, cruel world...

Recommended nonetheless...