St Clears is the debut album by singer-songwriter David Roberts. David is from Herefordshire and has been writing and performing for ten years but this is the first set he’s been prepared to let other people listen to.
After the catchy tune of the opener, ‘Sweet Little Time’, the first thing that hits you about the record is the string arrangements, particularly ‘Indian Blues’ in which he features on percussion. David wrote the parts which are played by Vaughan Jones multi-layering violin and viola with Julia Graham on cello and Robert Pugh on piano. David has certainly spent time learning his craft but even so these arrangements sound remarkably mature. The songs, however, often sound like cut-ups or stream-of-consciousness imagery. ‘Storm Light’, for example, sounds really good but on a close examination makes no sense at all and it’s not alone. I’m going to suppose that David is hiding some deep meanings in these opaque lyrics but they elude me.
Musically, St Clears is often very beautiful, the flute part on ‘To The Day’ stands out as one of the highlights but I need something more from a songwriter.
Dai Jeffries
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