Album Review

Rod Thomas – Same Old Lines

• 26th Nov 2008

As the World Credit Crunch begins to bite, we can all fall to our knees and hope that the age of the over inflated musical act will die along with the likes of Lehmann Brothers. For years now the musical landscape of the UK has been deteriorating to such an extent that acts such as Katy Perry have for some reason come to deserve column inches in actual music publications?

Thankfully there is a brave lone troubadour, like a modern day Mad Max, who walks the baron wastelands of the UK music scene armed only with his trusty sampler and guitar. Rod Thomas gathers his weapons and confronts the demon of meaningless music head on turning it away with a combination of gorgeously delicate melodies combined with a lyrical honesty that could knock the hardest of people over with the proverbial feather.

‘Same Old Lines’ is a track that seems so perfect for today in that all we have to listen to from the mainstream is the same old rubbish diluted down another hundred times with every passing month. As Rod cries out that he’s ‘bored, bored, bored’ this writer could not put it more perfectly. For Thomas it’s another beautiful dissection of a relationship’s dying embers but it could be applied to so much more. The honesty as usual is both painful and tear inducing all at the same time, as his superb voice leaves a deep impression long after the track has ended. The opening lines of the song has Rod telling us ‘Well I know I’m not amazing,’ and not wanting to disagree, but this writer feels others may have a different opinion on that one. If you do nothing else today click here [link] and open your ears.