Album Review

George Demure – The Drifter

• 14th May 2010

George Demure’s latest release ‘The Drifter is the second by the Scottish crooner released on the 26th of May. George blends an unorthodox mix of Brat Pack-esque crooning, Synthpop and acoustic guitars. Apparently he got voted as one of the best dressed men in the Scottish style awards, clearly making more of an effort than the floppy haired inbreds we see gracing the local stages so often these days. Apparently he wears a suit. Wow!

George’s voice is strong and fits a range of styles though his strength in song-writing does come though in the New wave songs like ‘Liza’ (which should be the first single) and ‘Dress Me Up’. This is clearly George’s strength and you wish he had gone a little further and made the synthesisers even more aggressive and prominent. The songs entwine with a range of feels and there is even an instrumental (well, a keyboard using overdubs) track called ‘Cold Blooded Old Times’ which has a slightly darker feel reminiscent in places of Trent Reznor. There are atmospheric pieces and these show that George may have edge – push him too far he will put out your eyes…but he would do it with a smile of apology.

Alas, there are also a couple of crooned ballads like ‘How to Land’ where the vocals sound like poor a parody of Darius Danesh (he of the thrice accursed Pop Idol fame). It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just not very good and it’s a shame as the record does have other moment’s of transcendence where the songs take you to another time where Gary Numan ruled the airwaves and ‘The Breakfast Club was the best movie ever!

The cover of ‘Golden Brown’, The Stranglers classic was a mistake to include as it reminds you just how good the original was. In some ways the same can be said for most of the Album – it has you reaching for your old Soft Cell and Depeche Mode CD’s rather than the ‘repeat track’ button.

Rating 2.5/5
Get Depeche Mode instead.