Album Review

Richard Walters – Pacing

• 5th May 2011

Richard Walters piqued critics’ interest with his first album “The Animal”. Mainly acoustic and often very personal, it could have been written off as standard singer-songwriter fare. But instead, Walters’ unique voice and often-dark lyrics give the album a bit of an edge, and “The Animal” has a pleasantly ethereal, haunting quality.

Walters’ new album “Pacing” retains some of that edge, but the new tracks are bigger, brasher, with less fragile vulnerability. This is perhaps due partly to the styling of producer Bernard Butler and to the injection of some very synthy electronics, which Walters says “feels like a genuine departure”.

It’s a change that prompts mixed reactions. The layers of electronics swirl around the raw tunes, wearing away that sharpness and bolstering the music with ambient padding. The result is smooth, polished and easy on the ear. But it also sounds quite familiar – there’s something a little Coldplay/U2/Keane about the arrangements. Which means we’ve lost some of that hair-prickling, otherworldly quality of his earlier work.

This is an emotional album, in a swelling soundtrack kind of way. You can imagine an X-Factor contestant using one of these songs, and drawing tears from many a girlish eye. One of its tracks, “Elephant in the Room”, has already been used by a finalist in the US “So you think you can dance”, causing a bit of a YouTube flurry.

But throughout the album, and especially in tracks like “Breathe” and “Black Hair”, the soaring synths and Walters’ spooky voice are married well, creating moving, atmospheric music that really hits home.

“Pacing” might not interest the critics as much as Walters’ previous offering – it’s not terribly challenging and lacks the tantalising sense of something different. But it is a clever, well-crafted, enjoyable listen. And if someone on the X-Factor covers “Pacing”, all quavering strings and poignant lyrics interspersed with soaring electronics and drums, I might even find myself voting for them.