Friday, May 18, 2007

Silvertrain/Damien Project - Believe

Hear The Track Here

Another month another (not) Silvertrain track. In fact, John Brandon - the usual face of Silvertrain these days - has gone one further and got into a collaboration with another well known scene face; Damien Project. For those who have been around Soundclick (and the others sites we all seem to inhabit) both names are extremely familiar, I have been a Silvertrain fan of pretty ferocious dedication since 2003 and have known of the Damien Project almost as long. It's a given then that with John's songwriting abilities and Damien Project's extensive production skills that this should be something well worth bending an ear for. As John says in the song comments 'this is an epic track'..

Weeeell, let's see.

There again, a ST review wouldn't be an ST review without a certain amount of back story. John wrote Believe in his usual style (kinda rock ballad-y), recorded it at home with just a guitar and voice and I managed to get a listen to this before hearing the collab version which is fine by me. I like to see where a song goes. Anyhoo, Believe (the original) is pretty much what you would expect from this quarter; a solid song but not much else. I might have had a couple of good things to say about it but overall - as you well know - this isn't really my cuppa at all. Good job that the version I had only topped out at a minute and a half otherwise I would right now probably giving the poor guy earache (again). From the outset, the collab version of the song is recognisable, enhanced and accentuated with some splendid arranging from DP.

It's also a good deal longer, some five minutes or so, all of it full of some fine sounding music, although with one small caveat; you should probably like slow, weepy ballads if you go to listen to it. Having said that, the sheer work and attention to detail that Damien Project brought to this track is astonishing, developing what was essentially just a song idea into a fully blown track with some considerable gravitas. All this, and I really don't like the style at all. I do, however, like what Damien Project has done to this track from the stuttering strings at the end of every verse to the sublime spoken outro - all very rock, all highly listenable. Not so much a collaboration as a complete re-write. DP took the original idea John came up with and wrote an entire score around it and I do mean an entire score. I bet John had no idea this was heading his way, and I'm bloody certain he's glad it did. As it happens, so am I.

A great song but an incredible arrangement. Highly Recommended.

No comments: