Clixie – 15th August 2011

10/10

Having arrived in the post at the beginning of July, we could barely contain our excitement when we opened one of numerous packages to discover One Sixth Of Tommy’s debut album at hand. From then on we soon had You’re In My Head firmly on repeat, which is where it’s remained ever since. In fact, we’ve played it so much since it arrived we’re surprised the disc even works anymore.

With quite a few small teaser snippets floating around the trios social media pages and having witnessed them play live on a number of occasions already, we already had a pretty good idea of how fantastic this album was going to be. That being said, we’d have been stupid to have gone on that assumption alone – and after a good few plays it definitely didn’t disappoint.

One Sixth Of Tommy bring something vastly unique to the modern musical table combining a careful and considerate array of traditional folk/acoustic traits with a sound that would fittingly suit a pop audience. They’ve managed to further surprise when we thought they could do no more, showcasing not only their broad, stunning vocals that we mention oh so often, but also their song crafting and song writing abilities.

As with many artists similar to trio, a tendancy to lack diversity is always a potential worry, however with One Sixth Of Tommy this totally isn’t the case. Let’s be honest, not on their watch were they going to put out a record that wasn’t up to standard. Just to give you an idea of how much we love this record, it’s been played 20 million times since it’s arrival (alright, perhaps it’s only 53 or so).

If you want to talk about setting the bar incredibly high, look no further than the records opening track. Care About It has already become one of our personal live favourites and you’ll struggle to find a more stunning vocal delivery anywhere else. It also features a delightful little keyboard arrangement and highlights the point we made about diversity, constrasting vastly from the softer For Always for example that appears later in the album.

Similarly the girls’ new single Everything’s OK takes on quite marvellous harmonies accomodated by such a simple but effective blend of guitars. Out of an album of such high quality, it’s definitely up there as one of our favourite tracks. It leads and builds up to a strong section of tracks, as Butterflies, Cotton Pockets and Escape explore the vast song writing talents One Sixth Of Tommy have to offer. Take Cotton Pockets for example; It’s calm, it’s relaxing, and it will easily blow you away. It’s brilliantly produced, but you’d expect that when you consider who they worked with, and you find yourself skipping back to have another listen more regularly than you probably should.

In a healthy middle collection comes Not Listening, along with the debut single The Pact and free download For Always. We could offer an opinion on all three individually but we like to be different and sometimes quite awkward. In a way all three compliment eachother perfectly, almost reciting a typical relationship narrative that includes both the up and downs along the way.

The album rounds off then with the delightful In The Sun and It’s Alright. In The Sun definitely rivals Everything’s OK as our ultimate album favourite and it gives off a highly jolly vibe. It’s a definite reminder of the summer season – quite fitting then for the time of year, we think you’ll agree? Almost in juxtaposition, It’s Alright is the perfect way to end such an outstanding release. It mimics the calm and collective manner some of the previous tracks offer, in particular Cotton Pockets – again calm, collective and prompts a reminiscent mood from the outset.

It’s not very often we’re left struggling with a way of defining how good something is, but that was the case here. It took us quite a long time to even consider beginning such a review, as we quite frankly were left in writers’ no-mans-land. Lee Bradshaw