If The Trouble With Templeton is the impressive stockpile of Calder’s ideas, then Breeders is the often impressive, occasionally brilliant debut attempt at executing them. It’s written large in the record’s title track: a spine-chilling melodrama that perfectly spearheads Calder’s ambition and thrilling voice. For better or worse, it easily the record’s watershed moment. Though the remainder of his debut matches the song’s mood, namely hushed melancholy that bursts into a barely-contained brooding intensity, it fails to match its scope.
Luckily, Calder’s sharp lyricism and wealth of ideas carry the songs when their thin production occasionally falter them. I Wrote A Novel squeezes vocal breathing for a rhythm track alongside writerly couplets, ‘I wrote a novel about it/grammatically it’s full of holes. My speciality has never been/knowing where them commas go.’ Someday Soon follows with a mournful gospel procession underpinning a ravaged soulful croon and simple guitar strides.
Finishing with the bruised Tired, the impacting mood is often melancholic – comfortable in its vulnerability – but ultimately cathartic and brimming with potential. If he can produce this kind of world-weary acoustic revelry in his youth, it’ll be fascinating to see where the bruised experience of time (or some broken hearts) will take him creatively.
BY AL NEWSTEAD
Best Track: Bleeders
If You Like These, You’ll Like This : Just Like Blood TOM MCRAE, Magpie STEPHEN FRETWELL, Until Tomorrow Then: The Best of ED HARCOURT, 9 DAMIEN RICE
In A Word : One-to-watch
