release date: Oct. 12, 1998
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,85]
producer: Tommy D
label: Hut Recordings - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 2. "A Little Communication" - 4. "Honey" - 5. "Who Loves You?" - 6. "The Train" - 7. "Love & Madness" - 8. "It's Enough" - 9. "Sorry"
2nd solo album by David McAlmont released four years following his fine debut album McAlmont - here produced by Tommy D (aka Tom Asher Danvers). Since the debut, McAlmont released the acclaimed McAlmont & Butler collaboration album The Sound of... McAlmont & Butler (1995), which may have influenced McAlmont to record an album of slower and more jazz-influenced material than one will find on his dance-pop debut. This is quite different from his first solo release, and if he hadn't made the album with Bernard Butler, many would find it hard to tell this is the same guy, who gave us uptempo pop-songs like "Either" and "It's Always This Way".
Stylistically, it's slow pop soul ballads with a strong vocal jazz tone, and the songs are almost the opposite of the multi-layered compositions you'll associate with his first album out but which also characterises his McAlmont & Butler collaboration material.
As was the case with the debut where McAlmont worked with Saul Freeman, McAlmont has written the songs in collaboration with various musical composers featuring especially Graham Kearns who is co-writer on four songs and who plays guitar on three compositions. Gary Clark and Peter Gordeno are both credited for musical score on two songs each, and also Guy Davies contributes as composer of one song and is credited as keyboardist on half of the album's ten tracks. Aside from producing the album, Tommy D is credited for keyboards and programming as well as for mixing an album, which shows us a new side to McAlmont's talent. I remember listening to the album at a local record store back in '98 or '99 and my rejection of the album as I found it too soft and for lyrically displaying too much Christian appraisal - in other words, my preconception stood so much in the way that I just couldn't appreciate it for what it is... Another decade later I returned to the album after having heard his fine 2005 album, and I was surprised how I could have rejected it then.
The album is a very delicate but beautiful collection of slow ballad-like pop soul and modern vocal-jazz compositions that once again demonstrate what a gifted vocalist, David McAlmont truly is. It's also an album where the highs are more than ordinarily hard to pin out 'cause McAlmont shines here, there - practically all over the album. To me, this outshines both of his collaboration albums with Bernard Butler (the second followed this album in 2002) but unfortunately, it's nearly an unknown release to the public.
Highly recommendable.
