Music Review // Oliver James Brooks "Between Me & Me"

  Oliver James Brooks is such a shining example of taking your varied influences and finding a way to make them all work into one complete sound.   "Between Me & Me" begins with the song "Lines On My Eyes", which we should all know by now, but then the album continues in this style that is musically like Tom Petty or Lou Reed.   Nice guitar parts come out but there is also just think distinct voice of Oliver James Brooks, soft spoken and almost at the level of a whisper while the music can feel so much louder.  

As we go into the song "Someone Else's Life" there is the sound like a drum machine and just those winding guitars come out as well.   This is when, to me, Oliver James Brooks really begins opening up the sound and going from being this rock n roll guitar-based musician to finding some of that new wave influence and bringing it into the sound.   This comes out with the synths on "Too Dark To See" and even though "Counting Down" can feel mostly acoustic it does also have those synth whirrs come in behind all of that.

"The Pain" has a nice groove but also has these sort of haunted whirrs within.  The end of the song just feels like it drops off into space with a musical outro.  "From A Different Place" begins the harmonica phase of the album, which at times can remind me of The Wallflowers as well.  The acoustics are catchy on this song, with the lines: "How much longer do you think it will last / With me out here and you in the past".   Those slow harmonicas and acoustics are right there on "Heart On Pause" and by the end it does pick up a little bit.

I always like to think about how many different sounds exist in music and how they should be mixed up more like Oliver James Brooks has done with this album.  People will listen to "Between Me & Me" and hear the distinct voice of Oliver James Brooks, but this is more than just the vocals.  All of these influences are coming out in ways that are unique to this sound created by Oliver James Brooks and sometimes that is the best way to experience music- not as the artist trying to be someone else, but as the artists true self.