Scene and Heard – CCXIV: Love Is Just – Scott Kirby

One of the challenges facing the singer-songwriter, voice and guitar driven song is how to sound big. Not big in the bombastic, U2 stadium rock sense but in knowing how to take these simple elements and lift them off the musical page, make them sound robust and accessible, set them apart from the pack. Some do it by deft and intricate guitar work, layering vocals, production tricks and other gimmickry. Scott Kirby does it simply by writing great songs and delivering them with competence and confidence.

It seems pretty obvious really, why dress a song up to create some sort of pretend elegance when you can strip it back to actual eloquence? And Love Is Just is eloquent, in a solid and dependable sort of way, a combination of keeping things simple, though far from simplistic, and that fantastic voice of his. Letting the music breath and the vocals soar, a vocal which seems to blend romance and honesty and a soulfulness with a delivery that most rock singers would kill for.

Get the basics right and sometimes the rest will just naturally fall into line.