D.B. Rielly
Album: Cross My Heart + Hope To Die
Label: Self Rleased
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.dbrielly.com

One of the things I like about D.B. Rielly is that he gives the songs enough space to be themselves and if that means a bit of genre hopping, so be it. Consequently, across the nine tracks that make up "Cross My Heart + Hope To Die", you'll hear elements of Americana, Cajun/Louisiana swamp pop, blues and Southern rock, but with a style and panache that connects them all together.

I'm sure everyone has had that frustration of listing to a song on an album thinking that it would work better as something else, too many albums homogenised to a genre so the whole sounds the same, rather than celebrating the differences, like the difference between the standardised apples sold in a supermarket and the less pretty, but more flavoursome ones coming out of a traditional orchard.

It would be fair to say that there are a real cross section of sounds spread across the album, including Celtic whistles, but they are all elements that highlight just how well D.B. works with songs and why he is such an expressive performer. "Cross My Heart + Hope To Die" is rich in textures and sounds blended across the album, rather than within the songs, delivered in a nice wooden box.

Much of the album is relationship orientated, but the mood of those relationships varies from the frivolous to the deep and serious, but at all times he has a knack of writing it in a way that is easy to relate to and with a narrative that's easy to follow.

"Cross My Heart + Hope To Die" is a highly enjoyable album and one that has spent a lot of time on my playlist in the car. It works well in a number of situations from listening to it purely for the fun of it, but also to provide the soundtrack to other events. D.B. Rielly has delivered not just an entertaining one, but one that is a good example of the songwriter's art.

Neil King