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Album Details
- Artist: Gary Go
- Album: Gary Go
- Label: Decca
- Year of Release: 2009
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: dadair on 2009-06-23
RecommendFatalism grappling in whatever format is going to lead to a similar conclusion and, this is that you should have hope and to follow your heart. Gary Go sets off on the journey to the destination of answer (an answer that is eleven tracks away!), in a bounding manner through ex-single, ‘Open Arms'. It's this glitter guitar decorated pop that earned him a coveted support slot on the current Take That tour.
A Travis coat is used to cover the bristling soul search of ‘So So' and, is never far away throughout this genuine, if a little forced foray. Pop songs have the obvious pitfalls attached to them. In order to maintain universal appeal, you have to transcend feelings of self-pity and becoming too self-absorbed. Gary tries to pre-empt this in 'Engines':
"I don't know why we're fighting, when we're on the same side?"
‘Brooklyn', brings out the yearning Stephen Fretwell spirit in Gary and his coffee shop blues pours out. It sets off an aching mood for the mid-section that runs through the jaunty pop/rock cry out of ‘Refuse To Lose', continuing into the echoing lament, ‘Honest'. An aching guitar strand is used to eek out painstaking feelings.
The power of positive thinking battles its demons throughout, as the cognitive process of Gary seems to succumb to the feelings in his heart, whilst this album builds to its predictable, but heart-warming conclusion. ‘Heart And Soul', though sounding a little trite gives the "let the heart rule the head" message a little life and spirit, with steadily warming, mildly jarring percussion alongside expansive, cloud reaching string pushed backing. As well as the expressive yearning, yet saccharine coated vocals of the erstwhile narrator.
‘Black And White Days', sees our Gaz breaking fully out of his self-reflective shell, diving into a saccharine coated ode to the power of a significant other, bringing a colourful touch to the fore.
There's enough on this self titled debut full length to come to the conclusion that music making, for Gary, is the equivalent to giving himself a pep talk. Instrumentally speaking, the uplifting simplicity adopted for the most part on this album, helps the calmness of it, but the self-absorbing nature of this offering and given the fact that some of the tracks lean a little too much towards sentimentality. Means that this is largely an album in which you have to be in a certain, sombre, life-assessing mood in order to be able to fully appreciate its direction.
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on 2012-03-28 CharlesMartel Said:
At the time this album came out, billboards advertising it were plastered all over south east London, particularly in the New Cross area. Now I am inherently wary of this sort of publicity for music as it indicates a fair bit of marketing money behind it, and marketing money means only one thing - record company hype. And yet, despite my misgivings, I was intrigued enough to go out and get the album. And then I discovered that the epitome of money-raking, teenage exploiting, style over substance boy bands, Take That, had Gary Go (real name Gary Baker) along as a support act on their come back tour. What had I done?
In truth, it is not as bad as that little introduction would have you believe. Competent if unspectacular singer-songwriter pop music is what it is, whatever else it may aspire to be. The album is divided into two parts - Youth and Beauty - and there are songs which can be said to broadly fit those categories. The concept is not new and would better fit a vinyl release than a CD and, despite its obvious pretension, does not ruin the album.
Ironically, what saves this album from being utterly awful is the fact that Baker's ambition has not matched his record company's budget. Baker sings songs of loss and love as if he were Gary Barlow of Take That. I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that he was a Barlow copyist, but he was clearly spawned in the same pond as Barlow. And yet, in evolutionary terms, Baker finds himself, by default, between Barlow and Coldplay's Chris Martin. The same soft voice, the same mellow intonation, the same (pseudo?-) emotion poured into the singing, you can almost see those imploring puppy dog eyes peering out at you from behind those thick rimmed spectacles.
Yet Baker's record company would not put up the cash to allow him to fulfill his dream. The songs cry out for the sort of lush orchestral arrangements which characterise Take That (and even latter day Coldplay) but they are not there. If Gary Go is going to sustain itself as an album it is going to have to do so on its own merits. And yet, remarkably, and probably unintentionally, the simpler arrangements save it from being a pure Take That clone. By not having those extras, Baker has to rely entirely on the songs and his own ability. And while neither of those are first rate, they are not so steamingly bad as to defy description. And yet, if Baker makes a success of this, you know he where he is going with his music. If he does get there, he may regard this album as something of an embarrassment when, in truth, it is likely to be his best.
Rating: 4/10
on 2009-06-23 dscanland Said:
Although you only gave Gary Go 3 stars I can't help but feel that this might be a fun album. Awesome review.
Not Rated
