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Album Reviews
Album Review: Kid Harpoon – Once (Beggars/XL)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Saturday 19 September 2009
When your press release starts off with the sentence: “Yeah, Chatham-born Tom Hull, Kid Harpoon, started on the London live music scene in early 2006” – like I’m supposed to know that or something – I’m going to be a little, well, let’s just say dubious, from the get-go. So he’s been on the scene for a whopping four years, he’s worked with Metallica and Bob Dylan (okay, that is pretty damn impressive), but has the Kid actually released something that’s worth being so smug about? Well… not really. When I sat down and listened to ‘Once’, really listened to it, I tried to pull apart the good parts from the bad – and that was the problem. I couldn’t. It’s a little hit and miss – some of the melodies are beautiful, catchy, and laden with the sharpest instrumentation (‘Hold On’ has a great introduction – really great), but they get slogged down by hooks that are just too bland, and a voice that, I’m sorry to say, reminds me a little bit too much of – shudder – that poor bloke from The Feeling. Sadly, this is the kind of music that could be found on the soundtrack of a melodramatic American high school TV series, and what irks me about it is the fact that it has the potential to be so much more than that. ‘Once’ isn’t bad – it just isn’t particularly interesting. TW
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