Reviews
Artist:Sean Taylor
Album:Angels
Label:Self Released
Tracks:11
Rating:****
Website:http://www.myspace.com/seantaylorsongs
Music industry legend always has it that the second album is never as good as the debut. The theory goes that you get as many years as you need to develope the debut and then
pressure yourself to get the second album out whilst the debut is fresh in people's minds. Consequently you tend to use songs that never made the first cut as you desperately write
your third album. It's a nice theory. It's not totally bollocks either. There are plenty of poor second albums out there. "Angels" isn't one of them.
I said of Taylor's previous cut 'Corrugations', "The songs are all infused with Taylor's fantastic playing. It's so good that sometimes it distracts from the lyric and I find myself
having to listen again to get the full song." From that point of view little has changed. Sean Taylor remains a fantastic instrumentalist who doesnt'waste a single note. Something that
is as true when he's playing keyboards as it is when he's playing guitar as it is playing harmonica.
What has changed is the approach. 'Corrugations' was a great collection of songs, 'Angels' is a full blown album.
Taylor has penned ten of the eleven songs on the album, but it's the traditional song, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" that provides the key. Naturally Sean makes the song his own. He
takes it from the oft styled, uptempo sing-a-long and restores it to it's gospel roots, via the delta blues.
'Angels' is a songcycle that takes us to places we feel uncomfortable with. In someways it connects us with our guilt. The collective responsibility that we'd rather not be responsible
for. Songs like "Fell In Love With Money" and the song that follows it on the album "Tony Blair", provide clues that this is an album not just about the body politic, but the person politic,
how we interact with the world around us.
Likewise it's no coincidence that he chooses to drop sound clips and quotes from two modern figures into his songs. The figures in question are Paris Hilton and George W. Bush, both supreme
examples of money buying success. Glitz over content. The Bush quote comes in "America Pt. 2", a song that follows "None Of Us Are Free" well you can't fault the senitment.
Taylor does have a problem, one that I find unique to this guy. I get so distracted by the quality of his playing, the sparseness of his gospel tinged blues, that I sometimes forget to the
lyric. Lyrics that would seem so sharp and incisive if they were delivered by a lesser musician.
Sean Taylor is proof that there is still a place for politics in music. If I wanted to be lazy I'd just say that we have the songwriting of Steve Knightly and the playing of Martin Simpson
rolled into a single package. It's not even as simple as that.
So far I've not managed to see Sean Taylor live. Hopefully that will be something I'll rectify at somepoint soon. In the meantime I'll content myself with two excellent albums. 'Angels' builds
on some great foundations. It provides a bitter harvest for the soul, but does so with ethereal beauty. It is often the dark angels that connect us with who we are.
I hope that Sean Taylor gets the same sort of break that propelled Seasick Steve into 2007. If that doesn't happen, pleased do your bit by buying this album and telling your friends.