SEAN TAYLOR - THE ONLY GOOD ADDICTION IS LOVE

2015 - Self Released
This is Londoner Sean Taylor's seventh album in nine years, and it shows thanks to the expressive confidence that is obvious in his lyrics and songs and total lack of any unnecessary polish or sugary sweetness on this generally sparse, if excellent recording. To that you can add his peerless guitar playing and what's not to be confident about?
By the end of the first play of this album it was fairly obvious that I had been listening to something more than a bit special by an artist who has always been known for his talent, a talent that has now reached full bloom to such a degree that he is now way above the pack in a rootsy singer songwriter field.
Atmospherically this recording can be compared favourably to Robbie Robertson's solo debut with its well thought out depth and the tightness of the arrangements. It is much sparser than Robertson's 'classic album,' with Sean's breathy vocal style adding to the mellow flow as well as the generic ambiguity. The pace is slow, rarely reaching a sedate mid tempo, but this is definitely a recording in which less is more on these high quality arrangements that contain highly descriptive, poetic lyrics and easy on the ear melodies. Much of the album concerns itself with aspects of love, including that which is lost, with the poetry often using metaphorical allusion to create a deep reflective atmosphere.
The recording meanders it's way majestically through eleven emotionally charged, soulful songs with ten of them written solely by Sean whilst on the eleventh he has added the music to Yeats superb poem 'The White Birds.' He is helped out on this recording by Mark Hallman who contributes many of his multi instrumental skills as well as backup vocals, Danny Thompson plays double bass on a couple of tracks and there are various contributions from other artists, with Sean taking all lead vocals, guitars, piano and Hammond. In some ways he reminds me of the late great John Martyn with his low key but powerful vocals and tremendous guitar playing; in fact Sean is as stylistically ambiguous as Martyn as well.
On album opener and title track The only good addiction is love, the song title gives an appropriate description of not just this song but the album as a whole! It is a slow moodily reflective paean to love, with a nice acoustic guitar and piano sound. The gorgeous ethereal harmonies give beautiful support to Sean's low key breathy vocals that are eventually joined by a violin that gives the song a fuller sound and a nice lift. Bad Light includes a terrific melodic chugging guitar sound on a song that gradually speeds up with a hard driving melodicism, again including excellent harmonies on a tale that has a slightly sinister, powerful swampy feel. Tiens Mi Alma En Tus Manos opens with a gently chiming guitar and mournful cello on a highly reflective tale of deep love. Sean's vocal is perfectly matched with the instrumentation on a song that has a deep atmosphere that slowly becomes more up tempo with keyboards and electric guitars. Moma is an atmospheric tale of lost love with Danny Thompsons powerful jazzy double bass sound allied to Seans guitar and flowing vocals, creating an atmosphere that is not too dissimilar to those often created by John Martyn, with sympathetic harmonies from Mark Hallman. The White Birds is a beautiful blend of Yeats and Taylor with Sean's music including a gorgeous steel guitar that provides an appropriately haunting background, eventually joined by a lovely uplifting piano, with melodic acoustic guitar providing the grounding, before snare comes in giving the song a quite spectacular feel that is ideal to finish off a terrific album.
In any company this is a high quality album and the songs and performances that are not merely excellent are quite stunning! Whilst I feel that the comparisons above are justified Sean Taylor is a musician who is ploughing very much his own furrow in terms of style as well as quality.
http://www.seantaylorsongs.com/
This is Londoner Sean Taylor's seventh album in nine years, and it shows thanks to the expressive confidence that is obvious in his lyrics and songs and total lack of any unnecessary polish or sugary sweetness on this generally sparse, if excellent recording. To that you can add his peerless guitar playing and what's not to be confident about?
By the end of the first play of this album it was fairly obvious that I had been listening to something more than a bit special by an artist who has always been known for his talent, a talent that has now reached full bloom to such a degree that he is now way above the pack in a rootsy singer songwriter field.
Atmospherically this recording can be compared favourably to Robbie Robertson's solo debut with its well thought out depth and the tightness of the arrangements. It is much sparser than Robertson's 'classic album,' with Sean's breathy vocal style adding to the mellow flow as well as the generic ambiguity. The pace is slow, rarely reaching a sedate mid tempo, but this is definitely a recording in which less is more on these high quality arrangements that contain highly descriptive, poetic lyrics and easy on the ear melodies. Much of the album concerns itself with aspects of love, including that which is lost, with the poetry often using metaphorical allusion to create a deep reflective atmosphere.
The recording meanders it's way majestically through eleven emotionally charged, soulful songs with ten of them written solely by Sean whilst on the eleventh he has added the music to Yeats superb poem 'The White Birds.' He is helped out on this recording by Mark Hallman who contributes many of his multi instrumental skills as well as backup vocals, Danny Thompson plays double bass on a couple of tracks and there are various contributions from other artists, with Sean taking all lead vocals, guitars, piano and Hammond. In some ways he reminds me of the late great John Martyn with his low key but powerful vocals and tremendous guitar playing; in fact Sean is as stylistically ambiguous as Martyn as well.
On album opener and title track The only good addiction is love, the song title gives an appropriate description of not just this song but the album as a whole! It is a slow moodily reflective paean to love, with a nice acoustic guitar and piano sound. The gorgeous ethereal harmonies give beautiful support to Sean's low key breathy vocals that are eventually joined by a violin that gives the song a fuller sound and a nice lift. Bad Light includes a terrific melodic chugging guitar sound on a song that gradually speeds up with a hard driving melodicism, again including excellent harmonies on a tale that has a slightly sinister, powerful swampy feel. Tiens Mi Alma En Tus Manos opens with a gently chiming guitar and mournful cello on a highly reflective tale of deep love. Sean's vocal is perfectly matched with the instrumentation on a song that has a deep atmosphere that slowly becomes more up tempo with keyboards and electric guitars. Moma is an atmospheric tale of lost love with Danny Thompsons powerful jazzy double bass sound allied to Seans guitar and flowing vocals, creating an atmosphere that is not too dissimilar to those often created by John Martyn, with sympathetic harmonies from Mark Hallman. The White Birds is a beautiful blend of Yeats and Taylor with Sean's music including a gorgeous steel guitar that provides an appropriately haunting background, eventually joined by a lovely uplifting piano, with melodic acoustic guitar providing the grounding, before snare comes in giving the song a quite spectacular feel that is ideal to finish off a terrific album.
In any company this is a high quality album and the songs and performances that are not merely excellent are quite stunning! Whilst I feel that the comparisons above are justified Sean Taylor is a musician who is ploughing very much his own furrow in terms of style as well as quality.
http://www.seantaylorsongs.com/