Ian Broudie - 'Smoke Rings EP' (Deltasonic)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
The Lightning Seeds might have been a lot of things, but particularly credible they were not; all big strawberries and football songs (it was a good football song, but that's a bit like saying bubonic plague was an effective disease). So for Ian Broudie to have made such a convincing return to the hearts of the indie elite, via some recent fine production work for the likes of The Coral and this allegiance to current overlords of all Liverpudlian music Deltasonic, is a little surprising.
Broudie has always come across very amiably, but with the 'Smoke Rings EP' comes sight of some material you can genuinely like as much as you think you'd be fond of its maker if you met by a jukebox in a local boozer. The melodic gift hasn't been lost, but it's now being used for a melancholy so convincing it's a wonder it wasn't plundered more thoroughly earlier in his career.
Heck, maybe sadness doesn't pay the bills, but it certainly sounds genuine. Whilst this is an EP in name, the title-track is the only real instance of understated genius, a charmingly sombre lament about a life lost amongst cigarettes and alcohol, and a very catchy one too. The rest of the brief eleven minutes are taken up with 'A Time to Live in Dreams' not outstaying its welcome at barely a minute and a half of succinct woe, 'Shifting Sands' and its mix of eerie reverb and epic guitar solos, and a slightly throwaway but nonetheless warming instrumental to cap things off.
So maybe this is the sound of the real Broudie. Occasionally, if not constantly, exciting - but you believe every word these wistful melodies underpin.
Artists in this article: Ian Broudie
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