Luke Jackson
Album: More Than Boys
Label: Pipe
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.lukepauljackson.co.uk/

Before I get into the full review of this album, I'd like to offer a word of praise to album producer, Welsh singer/songwriter Martyn Joseph. I tend to get wary when I hear of a really good up and coming youngster getting taken under the wing of a well known artist. It can be the cue for a mark 2 of that artist, but absolute credit to Martyn for pulling Luke out of Luke for this album.

I've been fortunate enough to have followed Luke Jackson now for a couple of years. The frightening thing is that's more than ten percent of the time Luke's been on this earth. I've seen him perform live on a number of occasions, heard his early "Run And Hide" EP, of which only the title track makes it through to "More Than Boys", albeit in a newly record form, such is the speed his songwriting prowess has moved forward.

It's hard top believe that Luke Jackson has only just turned eighteen, he writes with a maturity writers two and three times his age would struggle with. Yet at the same time "More Than Boys" is a rites of passage album, but not exclusively.

I really like the way songs such as "Last Train" with its life in the trenches connotations is followed by "Bakers Woods", one of the songs about growing up with a group of friends. The former really does emphasise what a creative talent Jackson is. If you didn't know better, you could imagine that he has set the likes of Sassoon and Owen to music, rather than penned it all from scratch. The latter appeals not only to the generation experiencing the growing up, but those that were there before them, we all have our Bakers Woods

I was privileged to have heard some of these songs in their demo form, "More Than Boys" has retained all of the passion and personality of those raw recordings and given them an edge, that has also given them a timeless quality.

It would have been easy to drop a couple of standards into this set of songs to give a wider audience an access point, but to have done so would have been to deprive the listeners of originals that must be destined to become standards in their own time.

"More Than Boys" is more than that, whilst you can so easily imagine the group of boys kicking around together, turning their thoughts to their hopes and dreams, you can also gain insight into that bigger picture, almost a perfect example of thinking globally and acting locally. There are those bigger messages of comradeship and being part of a bigger whole that find their way out of the songs.

I find myself thinking about what "More Than Boys" is. Well, it's one of the strongest first albums I've heard in absolutely ages. Then I think I might have sold it short. There is a maturity there that makes me think that there is no way that this is a first album, it's like there was an album written in the ether by old souls that have chosen Luke Jackson as their channel and then I feel that detracts from his obvious talent. Either way, this is an album to buy now and be able to say "I was there."

Neil King