Do you remember that review on the Johnny’s Garden website, that was originally in Dutch? We posted a (really) quick and dirty translation of it when we got it. Now, courtesy to Maarten Poiesz, we have a really awesome translation!
People describe the music of Wilson’s Reservoir – a band which has just brought out a fine cd and toured around Europe - as Small Town Americana Music.
Wilson’s Reservoir is not afraid of big gestures, which is shown in the music and mainly the vocals. It is essentially Americana, but their approach is often “big”, and with “big” I mean that they seldom keep things “small”. Is this still understandable? No? Suffice to say perhaps that the dark Americana regularly turns into convincing and excessively played (rock) music.
Add to this that we are dealing with a singer who has a Bono-style vocal attitude and you know just about what time it is. Personally, I find the vocals of Ben Wilson – singer, guitarist, songwriter and main guy behind Wilson’s Reservoir – amazing, but this is because he shows strong similarities to the vocal sound of Finn Andrews, singer of The Veils. The latter, in my view, has one the finest voices in rock music today.
The excellent vocals in combination with 11 great songs, that color nicely dark so to speak, make this cd very worthwhile. Opening song “Bullets” sets the tone, which immediately makes it impossible to ignore Ben Wilson. As if that is something you might want to do in the first place, because for those music lovers who are into more “fragile and intimate” Americana I recommend to have a listen first before making the purchase. ”Fragile and intimate” are not the words that really go well with Wilson’s Reservoir.
The only song on the album that to me seems out of place is the last song “Lemons in the water“, which demonstrates light qualities that in my opinion don’t go with the rest of the songs. Apart from that, this cd has convinced me and I wouldn’t be surprised to find them, with their “big” approach, playing at some of the bigger festivals in the future. “Small Town Americana Music” at a big festival: it would be a welcome addition.
- Ed Muitjens.
(Translation from Dutch: Maarten Poiesz)
The original post on Johnny’s Garden is over here.
