It’s taken Scottish singer/songwriter ALEX MCEWAN a while to realise his musical dreams. A Glaswegian, ALEX graduated from the city’s university and then settled into the security of a job with a multinational company before a second career in teaching.
In 1994 he felt compelled to write a song for the soundtrack to the film ‘Braveheart’ having learned that parts of the epic would be filmed in Scotland. Despite the song’s failure to make the final cut he received sufficient positive feedback to concentrate his efforts on developing his raw musical talent. Thus began a journey of musical self discovery that took in busking on London trains and gigging in bars and clubs in Nashville and Los Angeles. Here he came to the attention of Beach Boys collaborator Lou Natkin with whom he cut the early demos for his first album.
Back in Scotland and lifted by further good notices ALEX went into the studio with Del Amitri producer Mark Freeguard to record more tracks. Only when the album was complete did he set about securing the necessary financial investment to release it, deciding to set up his own record label, Forge Records.
So here at last is that debut album, ‘Beautiful Lies’, a 13 track collection of old fashioned, well crafted and mature AOR that contains strong echoes of established acts, some of whom have enjoyed a period of cross-over appeal among the masses only to retreat to a place that allows their careers to continue, buoyed by a large back catalogue of a few hits and many near misses and a loyal group of fans sufficient in numbers to keep the mortgage paid and the dream alive.
There’s a well worn and timeless familiarity to these songs which in its own way is both a complement and a criticism of the talent of Mr. MCEWAN. Having completed the songwriting course called ‘Proper Songs Played With Real Instruments’ he’s effectively by-passed the innovative aspects of music over the past 25 years, preferring to study the artists in that time period who continued to wave the traditional flag of the previous 25 years.
For example on tracks like ‘Make A Wave’ ‘More To Me’ ‘Take The Road’ and ‘The River Runs Deep’ we have upbeat numbers that sound like a cross between Del Amitri and Bruce Hornsby. On the title track and the breezy ‘Summer of Life he’s respectively taking on the acoustic balladry and soul-lite pop of Sting. The remaining tracks are predominantly ballads that recall Springsteen, The Eagles, Elton John and David Gates/Bread.
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There’s nothing wrong with soft rock – someone like Josh Rouse excels at it - but there needs to be something less universal and more personal in the music for it to resonate. There’s little sense of there being hidden depths to ALEX' music once the melodies have registered.
By making an album that is packed with easy to consume “crowd pleasers” it’s hard to find anything that speaks directly to the individual listener when the audience has all gone home.
Only on the track ‘Young Once’ is there a hint of something rawer and exposed in ALEX’ make-up but that could well be because it’s the one song that recalls a more recent artist, namely Damien Rice.
On the plus side he prevails from dipping into cloying sentimentality or resting on clichéd ideas and after two or three plays the quality of the songs comes through. It’s just a shame that the setting is so predictable and so embedded in ‘classic’ light-rock arrangements and production that the net result is to stifle much of the songs’ own character and personality. It’s solid and safe but it lacks dynamism, restraining the estimable musicians in a pretty but unexceptional blanket.
You long for someone to break out of the mix with an offbeat solo or a raucous burst of noise.
So a score draw in which ‘Beautiful Lies’ showcases a genuine songwriting talent but also a musician preferring to play it safe in the presentation of his songs. ALEX MCEWAN needs to step out of the shadows of his influences, take some risks and give his well defined and ultimately memorable songs their own space in which to breathe and extol their abundant virtues.
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