In Print  Home  Directories  Reviews  Get In Touch  Forums  Links  Gig Guide  

Luke Thompson: Here on the Ground

Singer/guitarist Luke Thompson got a good musical start from the Smokefree Rockquest, winning a scholarship for a year’s music school tuition. Discovering he liked it, he stayed for three, honing his acoustic singer-songwriter style, and drawing influence from Don McLean, James Taylor and Bob Dylan. ‘Here On The Ground’ is his debut album, and has already enjoyed some success with single Perfect Drive reaching the top 20 last year. Recorded at Roundhead Studios, with production and mixing by Nic Manders, it is an album of Thompson’s acoustic-based songs, with bright arrangements intermingled with the occasional slower, moodier track, but never deviating far from the consciously radio-friendly acoustic formula. Lyrically, Thompson mostly treads the standard ground of relationships, but looks at his own family story on the charming Mums and Dads. Debut albums are rarely so commercially adept and overflowing with radio-friendly pop songs - the opening track Say You’ll Stay is full of pop hooks that grab any listener’s attention. The problem I find with this album is that the songs come off like textbook examples of pop songwriting, with a glossy production that (to me) hides much of who Luke Thompson really is.

Related Information