Call Upon The Author

‘Lady Gasoline’ is the second full length album from Irish born singer/songwriter Chris Singleton. This album follows his previous offering ‘Twisted City’, and was mastered at Abbey Road – a boast which gives this musical nugget a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really manage to do so.
This is one of those albums that it’s difficult to review, because, really there’s nothing wrong with it at all. However, what I’m about to say is going to sound like a slating. This album has nothing new to say – it’s derivative, generic indie pop and the singer’s vocals are powerless and uninspirational. Again, I’d like to quantify this by saying that, technically, it’s not bad: it’s just not good enough.
To clarify, the music is fine: there’s some nice whirly organ in there, decent jangly indie riffs and a good amount of harmonies. The songs bumble along quite cheerfully, with obvious nods to Britpop and the Beatles (‘Sold the World’ almost is ‘Here Comes The Sun’: it’s slightly wonky country cousin, maybe), and homage paid to The Velvet Underground in ‘Lou Reed’. It’s all not bad, but it’s tepid, and that’s the response it’s eliciting.
To summarise, this album sounds like a band your mate could be in. You would definitely go and see them play in the local pub with a few beers, and enjoy a bit of a bop around and a singalong: but you couldn’t ever see them hitting the big time.