Charlie Simpson - Young Pilgrim

At the opposite side of the spectrum (following on from my introduction to the CSS review below), there are occasions where the elitist in me eagerly lines up into an already considerably long queue to take potshots at people with slightly embarrassing pasts. But whilst in that queue the bigger elitist in front of me turned around, slapped in the face and screeched to the rest of the queue "THIS FAGGOT HAS 4 BUSTED SONGS IN HIS LIBRARY". So I've come humbly back to passive aggression. After all, I'm reliably informed that those Fightstar albums were actually somewhat decent - but they lay a little too far along the XhardcoreX line of noise for me.

First things first - the album title and sleeve should be enough to tell you that this is a very serious chunk of folk-rock. But the first two singles from the record - which appear at the very start of it - would indicate otherwise. 'Parachute' in particular is an unabashed beeline for the teen girls looking for something in a post-Bruno Mars (debut) environment. It hammers home with a piano and cymbals, background cries included, with all the subtlety of a Gary Glitter karaoke night. 'Down Down Down' however begins the album well; albeit with some rather predictable attempts at authenticity (the falsetto harmonies, the guitar strings cracking). Yet neither are obvious enough to turn to parody; quite the opposite, the track carries a nice chorus and the strings slowly creeping in as it progresses are a nice inclusion. "The nights are so long without you" is hardly going to win an Ivor Novello, but the delivery and earnesty behind such lines are to be surprisingly commended.


I'm sure many reviews will have namedropped Mumford and Sons given the folk-pop nature of tracks like 'All At Once' and it's a fair observation. Touches of Coldplay too find their way into the surroundings (which is probably why NME describe this as 'pretty terrible' in a gorgeous turn of hypocrisy). Clarinets and poppy drums somehow combine seamlessly. Sadly though, lyrical blunders and clichés are abundant. "Old oak trees" make an appearance on 'Thorns' which is otherwise a pleasant, if forgettable, song. Yet when Simpson seems most comfortable is on tracks like 'Cemetery', a resplendent pop song that dares to use the line "I just hope your mind stays stable when you're Cain and unable to speak to me again". It's actually rather good.

If I were to mention the name Bon Iver in describing 'Hold On' I'd probably be signing my own death warrant, but it's the first thing that popped into my heard when I heard its opening harmonies. Somewhere along the way though it ditches the temperance and becomes a Snow Patrol pop song, which isn't terrible I suppose but I think ruins the authenticity of it. There are times though when the emotional whining becomes a little too much, and the title need be enough of a warning for 'I Need A Friend Tonight''s inherent soporific. Similarly, the intentions of 'Suburbs' are lost on me in amongst a sporadic rabble of blusters and snare drums. Simpson then takes us all for a walk on 'Sundown': "Oh, well the nights are so cold, and I'm breathing you in/ Well there's blood on the streets, and it's darker than sin". Vocally he's fine and the subdued nature of it is endearing, so I guess it fulfills its purpose.

However it's the lyrics of that and 'Farmer & His Gun' that just totally baffle me. Just try to make sense of this:

Run run rabbit run
Just don't get caught out by the farmer and his gun
Well hide hide rabbit hide
It's best to lose yourself before you ever lose your pride

Indeed. Things pick up towards the end though and he ditches some of these silly postures for pastures familiar - 'If I Lose It' could conceivably be distributed as a Damien Rice single. The vocals croon nicely and are backed by a safe, standard instrumental. It's musical bread. "Just open your eyes, something beautiful is happening" he crows on closer 'Riverbanks' in what's sure to find its way onto YouTube fan videos of One Tree Hill or period drama adaptations (ohay Jen). It's a predictable but pleasing ending.


So lyrically Simpson often shoots wide of the mark. Yet one has to commend him for trying something new and (finally) risk going solo, and for every single cynic unable to forgive him for Busted there's a strong pop song here that can wash them away. The sounds are safe but sweet, and a strong candidate for chart domination (and one that would, against Olly Murs or Wiz Khalifa, get my vote).

Rating: 5.5/10
Highlights: Cemetery, All At Once, Down Down Down
Avoid: I Need A Friend Tonight, Parachute, Thorns, Farmer & His Gun

Artwork Watch: He has thoughtfully picked up a Spanish guitar and posed with it to remind us all that this is an acoustic and folky album.
For fans of: Snow Patrol, dumbing down folk music.