We Are Catchers
Domino/EMI
Peter Jackson has no business being able to make tunes as lovely as he does under the name of We Are Catchers. This Liverpool chap should be more concerned with soccer and brash tunes about smoking, fighting and conquests than channelling Brian Wilson for these slices of urbane pop.
There is the required amount of melancholy on We Are Catchers that would be expected from a fellow who has obviously spent a lot of time alone in a room with a piano for company. With songs as full of ache as those found here, Jackson had to pen when about a specific muse. Isabella is that moment and is as bittersweet as you would hope.
We Are Catchers’ trick is not a new trick by any stretch, but it sure is a good one. The West Coast charm oozes from each track as Jackson layers vocals and breaks hearts (usually his own). The upbeat, harmony – driven Tap Tap Tap sounds as though it should have been written in a sandpit whilst wearing a fireman’s hat, and is the obvious highlight.
This LP is a 10 song display in the timeless quality of an immensely listenable voice and the piano. It is hard to fathom how a gent from such dreary surroundings could pen something so dreamy. Debut albums don’t come much better than this.
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
