DAVID JAMES HERBERT is a 21 year-old singer/ songwriter hailing from Scotland but currently based in Cambridge. And he’s making stealthy progress if this 10-track, self-released mini-album is anything to judge by.
Mostly tough and earthy, Herbert’s songs are organic, well-crafted affairs suggesting he’s a troubadour with a future. Opener “Barbed Wire Fence” is built around fierce acoustic guitar and rolling congas and brings the likes of Paul Weller and Kelly Jones to mind, though thankfully not in a horribly generic way. David’s voice is convincing and lived-in and goes on to excel on the fist-punchin’ choruses of “Faith In Me” and the dream-on ballad that is “15 Minutes.”
Elsewhere – like on the niggly and insistent “Carnival” and the slashing power chord attack of “People Like Me” – Herbert shows he can rock with the best of them, while the slow and anthemic likes of “Re-Wire” and the aforementioned “15 Minutes” feature tasty, Ian McLagan-style Hammond organ colouring from Ron Wood acolyte Rod Spark and the folksy, but spooked “Cinnamon” comes up sounding both joyful and lovelorn and none the worse for either of those.
For me, the one place “Turn Up The Silence” comes unstuck is on “Iccarus”, where the lo-fi start struggles to assemble itself into anything of substance and although Herbert’s vocal delivery is impassioned enough, the song itself never gets beyond a lumpen plod. Much more successful, though, are his forays into sparse, acoustic-based songs, such as the redemptive “Bounty” ( with that great “I went to my death with a bounty on my head” line) and the closing “The Harder They Fall”: a heartfelt, Noel Gallagher-ish creation driven by a throaty vocal which suits him to a T.
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David James Herbert, then, is a talented young character on the scene. The sometimes complex arrangements on “Turn Up The Silence” suggest he could do wonders with a larger studio and budget, but the intimacy of his best songs always shines through regardless. Instead of compelling you to “Turn Up Your Silence”, I would urge you to listen closely when more of this comes along.
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