Album Review

Gilles Rawson – Demos EP

• 4th Sep 2007

This E.P. is by London based Frenchman Gilles Rawson – with a little help from Donna Crawford overdubbing bass, piano, drums, keyboards and backing vocals into the rather lacklustre mix. The songs cover all the bases – from the Brit-pop sensibility of ‘A Game of You’, through the grungy punk of ‘Sunglasses After Dark’.

The jangly pop of ‘Friday’ comes over as one of the weaker tracks – the quality of the finished piece lacking the drive and urgency of the more up-tempo tracks. ‘Loser’ is by far the strongest track. The lead guitar bites through beautifully, driving a really good pop-rock song ahead with boundless optimism.

The talent of this guy doesn’t come to the fore often enough on this E.P. however. These songs would be a lot more accessible as solo acoustic numbers rather than through the parody and pastiche he tends to create with the overdubbing. Simple, catchy songs show a curious potential as slow burning pub classics. And that’s a compliment.