Oliver James is an artist from San Diego, California who has had a prolific career. I read his bio on his website which I encourage you to do as well. His inspirational single, “Keep Breathing,” from his debut album Chasing The Sun has amassed over 10,000 radio spins to date. He also released The Sun (2012) and What Have We Learned (2016) which are both full-length albums.
More recently he released a couple of singles which we will be concentrating on today. The first song I listened to was “The Hardest Part.” It starts with warm acoustic guitar and beautiful orchestral strings which could have been a cello or bass. The vocals and light pads surround you. I was reminded of some of the more acoustic material from Pink Floyd. The song feels very cerebral and introspective. It definitely puts you in a certain type of headspace. On top of the cerebral quality it felt very comforting and provided you with a sense of solace. The song starts to feel epic once the rolling toms come in. There are lush vocals which repeat the phrase “the hardest place” and have the essence of a fading dream. The next song I listened to was called “Winter Sun” and this song sounds huge. It’s more rock based than “The Hardest Part” and is very explosive. The song starts with a slick electric guitar riff and bass, drums and other elements quickly follow. I loved the rhythm section on the verse and the kinetic energy it creates. Right around the one-minute mark the song just starts to soar. It starts to feel very motivational and gives you the feeling like you can accomplish just about anything. The vocals are confident and inspirational and there’s also a killer guitar solo on this song. Towards the end of the song it really has nowhere else to go but down because the song is just soaring. The fade they implement into the song felt like a good move. After listening to these two it was clear that Oliver James is a talented artist. I appreciated both songs for different reasons. In fact, I liked these songs so much I’m going to check out their full lengths. This is an artist that I think will be accessible to a lot of people. Good songwriting and delivery with memorable melodies. What else could you ask for? Recommended.
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