Thursday 13 October 2011

Music Review: Will Leatherbarrow - Songs For Sleepless Nights Album


Will Leatherbarrow: Songs For Sleepless Nights Review

Released: October 2011
Genre: Acoustic/Alternative/Folk
Tracks: 16
Price: £6
Contributing Artist: Amy Brain
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Songs For Sleepless Nights is the first album published by artist Will Leatherbarrow, which features many acoustic style songs, performed and written by Will himself, with the exception of 'Cold Water' in which he sings alongside Amy Brain. Though he does prefer to sing his own songs, Will has done a few cover songs in his live performances.
Whilst originally from Liverpool, Will has spent most of his life living in the countryside close to the village New Deer in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He has been playing guitar for nine years now but has only been writing songs for the last five years. Most of his live performances are situated within Aberdeen in various locations such as 'Drummond's Cafe' and 'The Tunnels'.

While listening to the album it is clear that Will takes influence from various artists, one of which would be Bon Iver. While the lead singer in Bon Iver sings with higher pitched vocals than Will, the style of guitar and rhythm of the music are quite similar. Other artists that seem to influence Will's music would be Joshua Radin, Biffy Clyro and Mumford and Sons as well as a few others.


Oblivious by Will Leatherbarrow

 
The album itself is quite slow paced and mellow with the exception of a few songs which are a bit more upbeat. The order of the songs also seems fitting with gradual ambience, with no slow songs one minute and fast songs the next, perfect for relaxing to without the need to change song or being snapped out of chill mode, which is upsetting in some albums. There is nothing worse than being so chilled one moment, almost falling asleep, then leaping out of your chair the next due to the artist going crazy on guitar.

The first track on the album which is 'Quiet Stuff' pretty much sums up what kind of music is on the album and is a good song to begin with, however though the song is great one drawback with it is that it only lasts for 1:39 seconds which feels quite short when listening to.
One of the more notable songs on the album would be 'Oblivious', in which Will uses the aid of technology to tweak his voice to give a unique kind of overdrive aspect to his voice which suits the intro very well. Another song which also stands out in the album would be 'You're Not Her' in which he shows impressive vocals which go great with the guitar's rhythm.
Wills duet with Amy Brain is also quite good and goes great with the album. Neither one of their voices cancels each other out and both go great together. The song is quite similar to Snow Patrols 'Set fire to the third bar', but is a bit more upbeat.


Another great song by Will would be 'Wind in the Leaves' which is not featured in his album. It also contains no lyrics but nonetheless is a great song to chill out to.

Wind In The Leaves by Will Leatherbarrow


For other updates and videos of Will you can check out his YouTube page in which he performs different covers from different artists one of which is Laura Marling - Blackberry Stone and can be seen below:



- Brian Keenan

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