Rand and Holland — Tomorrow will be like today
Sun is Oren Ambarchi and Chris Townend (read review here) and they both feature on this album although Rand and Holland is the project of Brett Thompson. Thompson works at the same recording studio as Townend and those two lads probably have a lot to talk about since their music, if not identical, is playing in the same ballpark and is at least of equal quality. Another person working at that studio also features: Scott Horscroft.
Tomorrow will be like today starts with the beautiful God’s little acre. It sets the mood perfectly: a songwriting full of self-restrain, a nice deep (but not too deep) and quiet voice, instruments used with taste, avoiding anything unnecessary, going the “less is more” way. Let me down gently is a very quiet, contemplative track. No guitar, some keyboards, very discreet drumming and the vocals: discreet and touching. The fifth track, Everybody wants to go, is probably my favourite pop song of the year. A very subtle and deeply moving work recorded by Oren Ambarchi (on Fender Rhodes, keys, electric guitar and drums) and Thompson (on acoustic and nylon string guitars as well as vocals). A classy song that makes me think of that scene in PT Anderson’s movie in which all the characters are singing one of Aimee Mann’s song (nevermind that this song is put to shame by Everybody wants to go…). “Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die”. Love tones is another great song. No guitar, but a bass as the most prominent instrument, giving a very solemn feel. On album closer Tomorrow will be like today, the instrumentation is even more stripped down. At first, just a combination of Thompson’s voice and the sound of cicadae’s at night. Then you get some slow drumming and a keyboard sounding like a church organ.
Rand and Holland: the proof that experimentalists can write great pop albums. Magnificent pop music with a weird twist. And what a nice twist this is!