Shane Tully - Forward to the Rain

Shane Tully

Forward to the Rain
self-released; 2014

4.0 out of 5

By Jamie Robash

Singer/songwriters as we all know are a dime a dozen. One can find these lonely losers quietly crooning their lovelorn laments of lost jobs and one-night stands everywhere from subway stations and corner bars, to city squares and open mic nights. Hell, one can even hear them while lunching at their local Potbelly’s Sandwich Shop. Knowing all this full well, Boulder, Colorado’s Shane Tully took to the helm of his own ship and set sail several years ago, setting his sights on stardom. 

His first EP, the four-song Forward to the Rain, is a blend of well-crafted folky pop tunes infused with spacey sounding melodies that radiate and echo out into the void well known by lonely singer songwriters. Forward to the Rain wasn’t recorded alone. Tully hired a session drummer and bassist to back him up and musically the money was well spent. 

The album opens with the strangely titled, “Crocodiles, Infantiles.” Here Tully classically coo’s his “ooh’s” over majestic pop melodies that form like fog. By the time the track is over one immediately notices that Tully has mastered his musicianship. 
The second track, “Forward to the Rain” displays more of Tully’s beatific balladry, and the song sways like trees in the breeze, combining finely strummed acoustic strings and hints of perfectly placed piano. 

The hauntingly hymnal “Eastern Way in the Western World” laps lusciously like waves and contains the audaciously alliterated lines, “The freeze-framed finch finds A worm which leaves my Family's tree hungry.” Not sure what it means but it sounds cool. The fourth and final song is the happy and head bobbing “Amsterdam Ring!” The song sweeps you along on a melodic pop journey, as plush and poppy piano dances with precisely plucked acoustic guitar, as cymbals are accentuated in all the right places.   

Forward to the Rain is a pretty and precisely poppy first effort. Get out your umbrella and give it a listen.

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