You are hereAlbum Review: Mark Atherton - To Bring Me To You (Self Release)
Album Review: Mark Atherton - To Bring Me To You (Self Release)
This is the fourth album by Derbyshire-based singer-songwriter Mark Atherton, whose delicate approach to song writing and gentle, almost placid vocal style, creates a pretty laid-back atmosphere from the start. The dozen original songs here include tender love songs such as Look at Me, You and I and the title song, which closes the album, together with a couple of instrumentals.
Well-travelled, Mark arrives at his music by way of a youthful diet of Ralph McTell, Donovan, Roy Harper, Al Stewart, John Martyn and Nick Drake on this side of the pond and Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon on the other, whose collective influence contributes in no small part to this blend of retro-in-feel selection of songs. Whilst some of the songs are reminiscent of those sensitive 'slower' numbers included in the repertoires of progressive rock bands of the early 1970s, such as Something In Your Song and the album opener Along the Way, there are one or two lighter moments, such as Move on and Leave it Behind, complete with ukulele and mouth trumpet solo and Need Lovin', with the almost Beatle-esque middle-eight. Mark's wry observation on the meteoric rise of social networking sites and quick-fix celebrity making in the amusing Twittering Away, comes over almost as an homage to Ray Davies and The Kinks.
The two instrumentals included here are the ironically titled Mark My Words, which sounds for all intents and purposes like a theme tune to a 1970s light drama series, Randall and Hopkirk and the like, and Classical Tune, which is pretty much as it says on the tin, a piece of original music in a classical style.
Joining Mark is Martin Coleman on a whole orchestra of instruments and Ceri Ashton who plays violin. TO BRING ME TO YOU and other albums by Mark are available from his website: www.markatherton.co.uk
Allan Wilkinson
Northern Sky
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