Meant To Be – Clark Ford ft. Underground Treehouse (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Clark Ford is a man of many musical moods. This ability to deftly move between genre, sound and style has resulted in an array of singles and albums that take in everything from pop to country, jazz to folk and from novelty tunes to devotional music…both in the sense of love songs and those that affirm faith.

Meant To Be sees him in a romantic mood, an album full of songs about love and longing, songs about meeting and about marrying, of first fleeting moments, and reflections on long and happy relationships. It is a celebration of love, of being in love and of being in love with being in love. Yes, it is idealised and sentimental, but who doesn’t occasionally need some of that in their lives? And when you do, this is the perfect album to play.

It is also an album of duets, the perfect symbiosis of boy/girl vocals in the ideal setting. The songs are gentle, jazzy, soulful, seductive, sentimental, and serenading. There are obvious ballads, like the opener, I Believe in You, a song where pianos chime charmingly as sensual saxophones waltz around the vocals, and there are songs which fit more easily into the crooner-era, chamber pop style, such as A Dream Come True.

For Better or Worse sees things lean into a more old-time, musical hall country jig, the clarinet giving things a lovely, traditional jazz edge, and Every Moment sits on the accessible end of the modern jazz spectrum, one that fits perfectly into a sort of sophisticated, uptown, piano bar vibe.

Adieu gives us a different take on things. Although the majority of the songs found here are celebratory and love-affirming, here we have a song which reminds us that loss and love are two halves of the same coin and that things don’t always work out, as reflected in the melancholy tones of the music – and that, no matter how hard things are, heartache is all part of the human condition. Similarly, I Miss You sits in that space between love and loss, the personification of the phrase “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Gorgeous, understated, and relatable.

And things sign off with Written in the Stars, a song about destiny and patience, that feeling that there is someone out there for you, a sentiment driven by the music which is both chilled and somehow gently epic at the same time.

It is a beautiful album, one that perhaps harkens back to more sentimental and eloquent times but is full of timeless messages, messages relatable to today’s audience. Musical styles may come and go, but love is a constant.