Adam Lamotte - Time Capsule

Adam Lamotte

Time Capsule
self-released; 2014

3.7 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Adam Lamotte is a songwriter from California who recently an album entitled Time Capsule. It took Lamotte awhile to finish this album compared to his previous material because he didn’t have access to his recording equipment at all times. Some things are worth the wait and this album is one of those things.  

Lamotte is a good on the verge of a great songwriter. He lists the Beach Boys, Tom Waits and Talking Heads as influences but they aren’t transparent in his songs. Lamotte does a good job carving out his own unique space with little more than an acoustic guitar and vocals.

I enjoyed Lamotte’s singing style throughout and it is one of the main attractions to the music. HIs voice doesn't sound like your typical overly masculine singer/songwriter type. It kind of reminded me of James Mercer from The Shins and the singer from They Might Be Giants.

The only thing holding this album back is the recording quality and it’s not necessarily on every song. On songs with less instrumentation it’s not as noticeable but when Lamotte starts piling up drums, guitars, bass and more things start to sound under-produced. Fifty percent more polish on some of these songs would have gone a long way.

With that out of the way there are a couple of moments of brilliance that shine through. The first song “Creation” is a song that immediately establishes some on his eccentricities as a songwriter, which make the music enjoyable. On top of that the vocal harmonies Lamotte comes up especially towards the end of the song are not only inventive but infectious. Lyrically he is adventurous and doesn't fall into typical clichés. He sings, “It’s the first blank page of an open age / And nothing new to say In the blank of white nothing feels right / Under heavy thought up weight .”

“Drought” is a sparse song lacking percussion but it sounds open and you can clearly hear Lamotte’s vocals here. In my opinion it has some of the best string work and songwriting on the album. Speaking of string work you may want tocheck the bowed string work on both “Talk With Myself” and “The Way Back.”

Overall, there is little to criticize here besides the recording quality. There weren't any songs which I felt I wanted to skip over and it was a very enjoyable listen from beginning to end. 

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