Ward Thomas // From Where We Stand
Released 21st July 2014
Ward Thomas // From Where We Stand WTW Music
Ah, country, Americana, American roots music, call you it what you will, it is the most frustrating of genres. At its best, it is gritty, soulful music with heartfelt lyrics of struggle and adversity. At its worst, it is overblown, over-produced, sentimental mush.
Natives of Hampshire, 20 year old twins Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas seem unlikely country stars and yet this, their debut, was recorded in Nashville with crack producers and guests with CMAs and Grammys to their names.
For me, this is overproduced and the lyrics, at times, slip into genre cliche but it ain’t actually bad. Opener and lead single Push For The Stride is a foot-stomping country rocker, as is The Good And The Right. Way Back When is a weird combination of The Spin Doctors' Two Princes and the Jackson 5’'s Want You Back, with a huge dollop of Dolly Parton. Footnotes (Happy Endings) could've been written by Leonard Cohen. From Where I Stand could be a Bon Jovi cowboy ballad but is lifted by the lapsteel. On Take That Train, the ladies dump the lyrical cliches resulting in the album’s stand out track.
Stripped of the polish and with a bit more grit, this could have been a very good set. As it is, it is pleasant enough, promises much and will certainly appeal to the Radio 2 audience.
Pavlis (5/10)
