Grateful – TP Eric (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

In some ways, Grateful, the new album from TP Eric, seems out of step with modern fads and fashions, a collection of songs erring on the side of the slower-paced, poised, and poignant rather than the bold and apparent sounds of the mainstream pop and rock world. And that is precisely what I love about it. Rather than play the game of being conformist and conservative, following the zeitgeist and playing by the existing rules, TP Eric plays on his own, if indeed he was aware that there were any rules in the first place.

And the songs are astonishing when you stop and listen properly. They don’t conform to the current trends because they are both so far behind the curve and so far ahead of expectations, too. And that is precisely what you need from musicians: you need them to wander through the untrodden pathways of pastures new; you need them to lead rather than follow, set the bar, and make sonic moves brave enough to set the tone for the future. All of this is happening on this strangely unique album.

If the opener, You, might feel a bit like a nineties indie ballad, something that Keane might have given us, by the time we get to The Little Things, you realize that it isn’t going to be relatively as easy as you thought to pigeonhole TP Eric’s sounds and styles. By this third track, we are already heading down some sort of 60s-infused, high-concept psychedelic pop piece.

When the world stands still, is full of soaring trumpets and driving piano, is anthemic and optimistic, dynamic and changeable, and feels at times like one of the songs at the end of a piece of musical theatre when the sun comes out, everyone finds themselves where they need, or at least deserve, to be, and the plot lines all resolve themselves.

Grateful is an appropriate title for such a set of songs, as there is so much here that TP Eric gives thanks for. When I’m with you is celebratory and swathed in resonant guitars, shimmering sonics, indie beats, and, more than anything, as the album title makes apparent, gratitude. You open the door and run on a more folky urge, sitting somewhere between the genre’s traditions and more Beatle-esque explorations.

Even by the end of the album, it is hard to put a label on Grateful. It is not unique because it creates new styles or genres, but because it takes the existing ones, the classic ones – pop, rock, indie, folk into new places and old haunts, is both happy to nod to the past and show us visions of the future.