Tom McRae - The Alphabet of Hurricanes

For a decade, Mercury Prize-nominated Brit singer/songwriter Tom McRae has quietly found a way to carve out his own special path, often trudging stylistically in the cold, damp shadows of dark introspection and that special Anglo melancholy. Now at the age of forty and with four acclaimed albums under his belt -- including '04's wonderful Just Like Blood -- McRae has returned to his London streets and recorded a striking new album The Alphabet of Hurricanes (Cooking Vinyl). Self produced at his own studio, Alphabet again finds McRae mining the depth of his own soul for ten songs of spare folk musings and distinctive, intelligent and angular pop/rock.

Poet Simon Armitage, who penned Alphabet's liner notes, remarks that McRae "believes in language, not just words, and he trusts the silences that sometimes appear in songs – those gaps which open up between verses or even between notes, into which our imaginations pour." Listening to the moody and somber tones at the heart of songs such as the poignant "Out of the Walls" or the exquisite "Can't Find You" you can practically see McRae alone in his studio in the early hours, meticulously crafting his songs with the care of an artisan. Even when the energy swells on the upbeat stomper "Please" McRae reins the quickening pulse with a master's touch. Highly recommended.

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Tom McRae - "Can't Find You" (from the album The Alphabet of Hurricanes)

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