Tim Williams – Careful Love
Tim Williams has a slew of releases under his belt, and the acclaim he earned off the last album left many lying in wait to get their hands on Careful Love. It’s hard to classify the man and his tunes, but press releases lean towards the description of coffehouse pop meets classic singer/songwriter. This is a fairly solid description, but you can see flourishes of musicianship that push beyond those stereotypical boundaries.
When you listen to the first track, it seems at first as if the vocal inflection of Tim is leading you towards a stronger identity. “I Hit the Wall” lies somewhere in the vein of Telekinesis or Spoon, catching you with a bobbing hook. This all leads you into “Ozone Street,” which sounds an awful lot like a cleaner version of Tim Kasher’s early work with The Good Life. By this point, one thing that is disappointing is the lack of realism that stems from the recording of the drums. Sure, programmable drums are easy to do, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go get some solid work from somebody in a studio.
Still, if you can step aside from that factor, you’ll find some songs on here that definitely grab your ears, due mostly to the gentle voice of Tim Williams. Sure, it sounds awfully clean and polished, but with the rest of the musical accompaniment, that works to great effect here. Songs like “Oceans”or “8 x 10” have infectious grooves and tonality that find a way to lodge them inside your head. The latter track is probably one of the most exceptional on the album, but you’ll find me yearning for a stronger drum track to back this. A crashing cymbal here or there could have made this song brilliant; instead, it’s just pretty damn good.
Listening to Tim Williams new album, you find something for almost every taste. Slow moving songs with touches of piano and female backing vocals are abundant, as are the pop gems that most people associate with Tim’s work. This is just another solid example of a man who is crafting his own path, and what a bright path that proves to be when listening to Careful Love.
[audio: https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ihitanotherwall.mp3]Download: Tim Williams – I Hit Another Wall [MP3]