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MP3 Diamonds In The Rough - POP: British Pop
15 MP3 Songs
POP: British Pop, ROCK: Classic Rock
Details:
Review by Tim Sendra(https://www.tradebit.com)
Side projects are rarely as good as you hope; usually they are as bad as you fear. It is rare that the bass player or tour keyboardist whose songs aren''t good enough to make his regular band''s repertoire has any gems hidden up their sleeve. Usually you are left with an overly earnest imitation of the day job or a foray into uncharted territory that turns out to be embarrassing. And if you are a fan of the band that the side project emanates from, you''ll be interested and might even waste your money on the product.
Luckily for fans of Swedish group Soundtrack of Our Lives, guitarist Ian Person''s side project (the aptly titled Diamonds in the Rough) is darn good in an unassuming and fun way. For the most part Person doesn''t stray far from TSOOL''s guitar heavy sound but his light touch, lack of pretension and melodic tunes make the record a nice departure. He treads lots of territory on the album from loose Stones-y rockers (the title track), glittering blue-eyed soul (Heavy Weather) and lush soundtrack-ready instrumentals (Fool''s Parade) to bittersweet acoustic balladry (Make You Mine), Kinks-y pop (Trickster) and dusty country rock (Wendigo). Even flamenco (The Delivery)!
Throughout the record the best thing are Person''s charmingly artless but effective vocals; he sounds achingly real (and somewhat like Epic Soundtracks at times). Plus everything sounds great with layers of guitars piled just right and plenty of touches like handclaps, horn sections backing vocals to keep things interesting. Diamonds in the Rough is the kind of rare side project that makes you wish Person would quit the day job and stick with this. You don''t even have to be a TSOOL fanatic to dig it. All you need to be is a fan of well produced, hooky and exciting guitar rock.
High Bias review:
Diamonds in the Rough is the solo project of guitarist Ian Person from The Soundtrack of Our Lives. This eponymous debut is filled with winsome folk/pop melodies, inspired by the Beatles, the Byrds and various 70s singer/songwriters, with none of the titanic rock & roll of the parent band (despite contributions from most of TSOOL).
With a divine ear for a hook and a near-perfect power pop voice, Person turns out to be a consummate popster, as “Wendigo,” “Heavy Weather” and “Spiders” attest. He often goes wordless, as on the flamenco-inspired “The Delivery” and “The Barbecue,” which somehow crosses C&W with the Who. Despite his guitar hero status in TSOOL, he keeps his six-string work low key here, concentrating on catchy licks, jangly textures and sweet chord changes instead of heavy-breathing solos. Some of the instrumentals sound as if lyrics were originally part of the package, but the melodies easily overcome any obstacles.
Diamonds in the Rough is a strong record that indicates what Person brings to the TSOOL table, while still staking out turf of his own. Michael Toland
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