Luke Ritchie
Album: The Water's Edge
Label: Independent
Tracks: 11
Website: www.lukeritchie.co.uk

The Water's Edge is the debut album from Londoner Luke Ritchie. Yet it doesn't sound like a debut and it doesn't feel like a debut. If the publicity had told me that this was following on from five studio albums, a double live release and a ten year retrospective I would be frantically researching his back catalogue and lying about how his breakthrough third album was my soundtrack to the summer of 2005. When you peer beneath the surface it is not hard to find out why.

All songs were produced, mixed and recorded by Paul Savage at his famed Chem 19 studios (Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai, King Creosote have all recorded there) in Glasgow. This was off the back of Ritchie recording a song a week for six months and impressing Savage with his demos.

Richie is a folk tinged singer songwriter and the possessor of a big voice that, to his credit, he uses sparingly. It must have been a huge temptation to utilise it on every track and this restraint allows space for the guitars, the piano, and the strings to breathe so nothing feels rushed or shoehorned in. I'd hazard a guess that equally good songs failed to make the final cut because they did not fit the overall sound.

The only downside to The Water's Edge is that no track stands out and this may hamper chances of radio play. The songs only truly work when you listen to all of them but then, why would you want to do it any other way?

John 'The Jacket' Hawes