After perusing several year-end lists and seeing Fred Smith’s name pop up on those I consider to have excellent taste in music, I knew I needed to devote some time to his new double disc, Great. <\/i>A diplomat for many years who worked with peace-keeping operations, Smith isn’t too far off from that life in his songs, as he provides fun, clever storytelling through his timeless tunes. Great <\/i>is actually two very different discs; while disc one is primarily folk and country balladry, the second is Fred Smith unleashed, where anything goes and often does.<\/p>\n
It’s nearly impossible to discuss the highlights on disc one, because, well, each song is a gem. \u201cSome Lovers\u201d starts the listen off with harmonicas and banjo plucking, sounding not far off from any number of ex-punks heading into folk rock (e.g. The City And Colour), while subsequent songs \u201cLittle Jimmy Boy\u201d and \u201cWind And Wind\u201d are acoustic strummers with historic storytelling. Smith’s crisp voice is occasionally joined by lovely female pipes and pianos. <\/p>\n
Fuller songs like the country rock of \u201cTexas\u201d and the jazz lounge feel (and stand-up bass) of \u201cRaggedy Anne\u201d show much diversity in Smith’s arsenal, but the serene, lullaby feel of \u201cEmily Rose\u201d is Smith at his finest. A simple offering with warm melody and straightforward prose, the song \u2013 \u00a0and the album itself really \u2013 makes a lasting impression with a basic approach.<\/p>\n
Now, disc two is a different story. Here, Smith channels his inner Fred Schneider, but only after \u201cWhat Could Go Wrong,\u201d which very eloquently and sometimes humorously sums up Trump’s first few months in office. From there, it’s a grab bag of sounds, form the funky \u201cNice To Meet You,\u201d the falsetto, pop-weirdness of \u201cMy Girlfriend,\u201d and the horns and ska-friendly \u201cBackwoods Bum.\u201d <\/p>\n
An Australian who has spent plenty of time in The United States, Smith certainly knows much about American life and even more about how to pen 20+ songs that ruminate around the mind like a great Billy Bragg tune. Smith was being far too modest if he titled this after the quality of his song craft; a far more accurate title would have been \u201csimply fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":33389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10119],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-45205","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fred-smith","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45205"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}