August 9, 2011

Album Review: Charlie Simpson - 'Young Pilgrim'

From 'hard' pop-rock to beige, soppy folk

5 / 10 Charlie steps away from the GHDs in favour of a straw-chewin’, acoustic-totin’, overwroughtin’ Mumford folksiness. It’s a canny move, isolating the soppy-as-kittens, Incubus/Green Day-inspired acoustic sentimentality that’s run through so-called ‘harder’ Britrock since the mid-’90s and yanking relentlessly on it.

With lines like “If people on earth could just get together/Maybe we could find a place for each other” and (oh, the profundity) “We send people up into space without even really knowing if they’ll come back” along with Charlie’s self-consciously throaty delivery, it soon starts to irk. But, y’know, this will make lots of people happy, so let’s be nice, OK? No? Alright, it’s pretty terrible.

Emily Mackay

Order a copy of Charlie Simpson's 'Young Pilgrim' from Amazon