ROBERT VINCENT – Life In Easy Steps – DB Industries DBICD5

ROBERT VINCENT Life In Easy StepsRobert Vincent’s debut album comes lavishly packed in a hardback booklet with a bonus disc if you get in quick. The Merseyside-born singer-songwriter has a mighty voice with hints of Iain Matthews and Roy Orbison in his upper range and a tight, powerful band to support him.

It opens with ‘In The Light Of The Stars’, quietly, acoustically and the first impression is that this is sort of thing you’ve heard a thousand times before. But then it moves up through the gears so when he repeats the pattern later on ‘Demons’ it sounds very different. I’m going to make my major criticism here, because it’s an important one. The lyrics are included but in handwriting that’s even worse than mine and decorated with artistic crossings-out – I’d like to study and think about them but I won’t do that while peering through a magnifying glass.

So, I’m struggling to find deeper meanings in these songs of love gone wrong. ‘Riot’s Cry’ seems to be developing a theme when it comes to an end. ‘Burn (Like Cotton In The Fields)’ isn’t quite as dramatic as its title suggests but Robert’s ideas are developed to the listener’s satisfaction. It all sounds good and as a debut album it exudes confidence but I’d like to think that next time Robert Vincent will raise his eyes to more distant horizons.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: www.robertvincentmusic.com