Thomas Lang - Scallywag Jaz and More (320kbps) torrent

CD rip @320kbps

Thomas Lang has the sort of voice that fascinates all on its own: a succulent, tremulous, smoke-blue tenor that hangs in the air, looking for an excuse to soar or dive. This is at once the main virtue, and principal problem with the freshfaced Liverpudlian\'s debut album. His co-writer, David Hughes, and the rest of the band, pay due respect to Lang\'s precocious talent, surrounding the voice with spacious, haunted atmospherics. A piano picks out arcane melodies. Clarinets and saxophones coil round fretless bass lines, and the torchy voice luxuriates in the spotlight.
On Fingers and Thumbs, Scallywag Jaz, and Injury , the result is an eerie, late-night jazziness which turns its nose up at the MOR slush potential of Thomas\' voice, but which defies easy assimilation. The presence of his earlier single The Happy Man proves that Lang can, if he wishes, turn out the most sublime linear pop melodies, but here, even the cover version of Me And Mrs Jones seems more interested in unpicking the seams of the original.

Sleep With Me, and Boys Prefer swing lazily towards a hazy nostalgia for half-empty \'50s ballrooms, and Shoe Laces offers a brassy reprise on the theme of Mrs Jones , but these are songs which shine or slump according to the merits of Lang\'s voice. For all its misty sophistication, thoug, \'Scallywag Jaz\' is a brilliantly skittish beginning.

Scallywag Jaz
Breathless
Heaven
Out Of Reach
Me & Mrs Jones
Shoelaces (Mrs. Jones Pt.2)
Boys Prefer
The Happy Man
Spirit
Sons Of
Sleep With Me
Strength
The Longest Song
Fingers & Thumbs
Injury
(From Russia With Love)...
...Little Moscow