HR Smoke is an artistic persona/pseudonym for Andrew Smith who is an artist that lives in Birmingham, UK. His works in a range of media - photography, painting, artists' books, writing and video. Smith recently released and day is given ... which is a full-length album.
Smith mentions “This album is a 'branching out' into songwriting, a project based on earlier rewritings of the poetry of E.E. Cummings.” I actually found the process to be interesting. Smith goes onto to say “This album contains songs triggered by the coincidental initials of the poet E.E. Cummings and the company EE (Ltd). In a spirit of experiment - i.e. to see what happens – I collaged language from the EE (Ltd) Twitter feed together with language from some of Cummings’s poems. I liked the way that some of the poetic language gave – so it seemed to me – a kind of existential resonance, some pathos perhaps, to the complaints and lamentations of EE’s customers.” The album has one tone to it. It revolves around acoustic guitar and vocals. Musically speaking I can’t say this is a very exhilarating album. The dynamics stayed within an intimate register and I found the collection to be very relaxing. It felt like a mood. The center of the album are the lyrics themselves. I was intrigued by the premise of the album so I really tried to follow along with the words and see how I was able to interpret them. The album opens with “(by the time i get to)southport” and my first thoughts were I found the vocals soothing. There’s a good amount of spoken word in a Jarvis Cocker type of way. I also noticed a part where he somewhat randomly bursts into the main picking pattern from “Blackbird” by The Beatles. “someone” feels so relaxed it’s on the verge of sounding improvised. There’s no sense of needing to get anywhere with the music. Smith seems to be very content at the moment. On “the millions” he just about whispers in your ear while “how's your weekend going?” has a slight Celtic quality to some of the chord progressions. As the album progresses the songs all seemed to bleed into each other. This is not only due to the minimalistic approach but the way the songs are delivered. That being said “the puppy in the sky” and “helpline number” felt like high points. This is an interesting album. It was an easy listen, often very relaxing and cohesive to the point it felt like a continuous live performance. There are no big moments but a gradual low key mood that stays with you throughout the album. Take a listen.
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