Ten Fields
Album: Winter Sun - Summer Rain
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.tenfields.info

As I started listening to Ten Fields, it occurred to me that it's been a while since I've listened to an albums band whose release is populated with tracks that could easily be singles. Though different in style, "Winter Sun - Summer Rain" has an Americana flavour, to both Crowded House and REM, both bands came to mind as I was listening.

Whilst "Winter Sun - Summer Rain" has got an Americana flavour, it's more like a base over which Rhys Kelly, the band's principle songwriter lays his craft and does so with a real verve. There is a distinct poetry in the way he puts the words together. It has quite a visual element to it, making it easy to drop into the mindset of the writer and pick up on his vision.

Ten Fields are a band that are easy to listen to, the melodies are arrangements provide a comfortable environment for the words to make themselves at home in and yes, it also means that this is one of those albums that you can just take pleasure in as it refreshes like a well timed cup of tea, but like tea, there is also the cup that you take time over, the one where you absorb the more complex flavours and get your thoughts together. "Winter Sun - Summer Fields" is both the tea bag that's thrown into the mug for instant gratification and the loose leaf that goes into the warmed pot when you have that time to sit back and do it properly.

I have to say it's a shame the album doesn't come with a lyric booklet and I can't find them on the band's website either, but in all honesty, it's a minor gripe and these are songs that should be heard, rather than poetry to be read, even if the lyrics feel like they could be.

As you can probably tell, I'm quite enamoured by Ten Fields they do have that classic albums band feel about them and hopefully we'll be hearing a lot more from them.

Neil King