Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The dreaming spires that greeted Adam Barnes’ E.P. Blisters seem to bow in reverence once more as the young musician from Oxford releases his debut album The Land, The Sea & Everything Lost Beneath.
It is obviously only an analogy, however for anyone who has spent time in the jewel of the South of England or indeed may be only acquainted with the city through watching episodes of Morse, Lewis or Endeavour will realise that apart from the architecture, the scholarly learning and the chance to sip ale in some of the finest public houses in the country, the music world rarely gets a mention unless it is in the hushed tones of worship at the feet of long since departed composers or in the greater admiration of Radiohead. For Adam Barnes to buck that trend is nothing more than a true delight.
The Land, The Sea & Everything Lost Beneath is as exquisite as you could hope for, the laid back guitar, rising sharply enough to remind you that beneath every carefree heart lays the savage wordsmith content to bring you joy, melancholy and desire and if you are fortunate proper anger in equal amounts. For Adam Barnes to bring three of those wonderful expressions to the table is enough to send you scurrying to buy his album and fall gently into his cradling lyrics, the protection and shelter of a man who cares deeply and shows that concern throughout.
Adam Barnes bares his soul, the wound very deep but forthright, he wears it prides in the songs on offer and in tracks such as Howling, Come Undone, Kuroshio Sea, the glorious 3am and the serene beauty of A Good Storm, what comes across is a man destined to break hearts and his guitar playing to hone the imagination. It is an album of startling simplicity but tinged fully with great promise and wild expectation. It is but through good fortune that Adam Barnes has been nurtured into a fine musician and very good lyric writer for Oxford surely deserves more to its culture than the edifying presence of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis’ Inklings passing judgement on every creative heart that passes through its city.
Ian D. Hall