Tim was only trying to make things better. Or at least, that's according to Assist, the quietly bombastic opening track on their album Life Is Not A Competition. It's a fun hook, that is elevated by their intensely English vocal delivery, and a really strong start to this collection of sorta folky indie pop rock that feels like it could have been plucked right out of the post-Britpop era.
I really like Tim's vocal style. It's deadpan, but there's also a deep sincerity to it and it makes the songs work. I was mildly alarmed when I heard how deep the opening note of Echoes was, and I'm not sure how well it would have worked with another artist, but it fits here. It helps that the song sounds a bit like my beloved Belle & Sebastian. I suspect that Tim loves them, too, because the upbeat Trespass also sounds like them, with its lively horn section bringing a lot of additional energy into the fray.
This opening trio of songs is fairly lighthearted. You'd be forgiven that this is going to be the tone for the whole album, but there's a surprising number of protest songs here. The deflated sounding Flooded simultaneously addresses anxiety around global warming and pointless wars with its refrain "Waters rise and the bodies fall, young men die for no reason at all". Then there's the even more overt and quite lovely Uniform.
There's also this pretty bizarre track in the middle called Enough, which is a rock and roller of sorts that addresses food waste and environmentalism. I'm going to be real with you here, I don't like this song at all. I think this is a really good album but I couldn't really stand this one. It's obviously just meant to be a bit of fun and I'm obviously a bit of a stick in the mud but building a song around the chant "Who ate all the pies? You fat bastard, you ate all the pies" isn't quite funny enough to justify is corniness, and it particularly stands out on an album that is as sincere and respects itself as much as this one.
Personal taste and all that but at least I'm happy to say it's the only song that didn't resonate with me.
Funny how often this happens but the track that follows my least favourite is the one that hit me the most, the wonderful Surfeit. It's a sweet waltzy ballad, beautifully produced and performed. There's a point where the lead vocals cut out for an instrumental section and the quiet backing chorus gives me goosebumps. I really really like this one a lot.
The closing track, Rage In The Darkness, is interesting too. It stands out for being stylistically pretty different from everything that came before it. It's slightly moody and slightly funky and, I don't know if you'll get what I mean when I say this, but it has a night time vibe to it. Despite being so different in terms of its style, it makes sense in the context of being the closer. It's really good, and makes the album feel complete.
It's pretty easy to recommend both this album and this artist. It's an endearing and varied acoustic pop album and I enjoyed my time with it.