For reasons known only to the gods of music, it feels as though every man, woman, and vaguely sentient houseplant has, in the last couple of decades at least, decided that simply strumming an acoustic guitar automatically grants them the title of singer-songwriter. The reality is we have been faced with a tsunami of overly earnest but interchangeable troubadours that only seem to water down the very thing they’re all so desperate to be part of. Trying to find something genuine in all that is like rummaging through a bargain bin at closing time—possible, but rarely rewarding.
And yet, every so often, you hear a voice in that…whatever the opposite of a sonic wilderness is… and a real contender hoves into view (Brighton & Hoves into view? (That’s the second-best geography joke I’ve put in a music review today) —someone who reminds you exactly why you bother wading neck deep through that landfill of noise in the first place. My most recent reminder came courtesy of OneNamedPeter, whose album, Passing For Human, felt like, often literally, the sweetest songs in a world of white noise and chatter.
With six albums under his belt, you would expect the eponymous Peter to know what he is doing, and just a quick spin of the opening track here, “Go Down To The River,” proves that to be the case. It also lays out his sonic stall perfectly, that of an astute singer-songwriter who deftly and sparingly clothes his songs in the more weighty sonic garb of a fuller band sound.
And if “Ghost of You,” which follows, shows us his understated, dexterous, finger-picking side, “Flying” takes on a lilting country-rock groove. The title track is ambient-cool, drifting and delicate, drawing a gentle energy from a ticking beat. “Skytherapy” is graceful and dreamlike, and “What Are You Doing Now? is a real folk-rock groover.
“Passing For Human” is nothing short of a triumph, a resounding testament to the fact that if you possess the knack for spinning great melodies, then even with just a bare minimum of instrumental embellishments and one eye on the less is more ethic, you can pass by fads and fashions, genres and zeitgeist and head straight into the rarefied realm of classics in the making.