Mike Reinstein
Album: A Long March Home
Label: Irregular
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.mikereinstein.co.uk

An intelligent singer-songwriter with a rather better-than-average command of fingerstyle guitar, Mike's one of those long-standing and valued live performers who's unlikely to disappoint on disc, for his thoughtful and considered approach to songwriting extends to the recording process too, as you can hear from his second album for the Irregular label.

His first album was aptly titled More To be Revealed, for it certainly hinted at greater depths in his writing, with a promise that's fulfilled in good measure on album number two, A Long March Home, whose songs engage the inner mind as well as all the "usual" (surface) emotions. Throughout the disc, Mike displays ingenuity in his musical settings, surrounding himself with talented musicians who may not be "big names" but who clearly respond to the lyrics rather than just turning up and doing the job (check out the trombone part on A Calling, or the weaving cello and flute lines on Iris, for instance).

You can't fault Mike's choice of time-honoured topics either - life philosophy, the paths and perils of true love, intolerance and prejudice, guilt and fear, the aftermath of war. The war-themed songs tend to be standouts, with Warface and On Cable Street especially memorable, while the lilting portrait of Iris is another very strong track. Other highlights include Mike's touching memoir of his grandparents (Gefehlt Mir Mein Heym), the tender Love Carries Us Through, the simple, plaintive Your Help's Long Overdue, and the disarming honesty of A Watchman For Your Heart.

An appealing characteristic of Mike's writing is his plain-spoken expression of thoughts and feelings; a slight drawback to this, however, can be that in his striving for maximum accessibility Mike's very plain-spokenness can lead to intentional catchiness erring on the side of repetition. And I'm not entirely convinced by Advice, its cabaret-piano setting or the knowing irony of the vocal delivery (and lyric) to which it forms a counterpoint - it's a clever enough retro-style throwback, but I find it palls with repetition just a little. Of course, not all listeners will agree with the above minor reservations, and they're not sufficiently serious to either remove or significantly qualify my recommendation to seek Mike out.

David Kidman