Tumbledown — Safe And Sound

Based in Maine, U.S.A., Tumbledown is basically a one-man-band of Tom Gagne. His debut CD Safe And Sound contains a varied mix of songs which can be described as an intelligent and emotional type of rock music.

One could say it’s ‘Adult Oriented Rock’, but that also seems to suggest that it’s a bit boring. But it isn’t, not at all. Opener Hold hits off with powerful guitars and a subtle groove. The first thing to stand out is Gagne’s emotional voice, often layered into powerful choruses. Nex his guitarplaying is just as interesting, being elegant and fluid. The songs are full of interesting dynamic, harmonic and melodic twists and turns that keep you on your toes, if the emotional performance didn’t do that already. Songs like Anxiety and A Brother With Wings alternate between subtle acoustic ballad and more powerful and sometimes somewhat discomforting rock. Taken is more up-beat although I wouldn’t qualify as happy. Sometimes reeds enrich the mainly guitar- and vocaloriented music of Tumbledown. Like in the somewhat mysterious Chrysalis, which has the most diverse, almost epic, structure and arrangement. Even branching out further in Feathers And Bones, which closes the album off in a slightly different fashion, with its spooky carousselvibe.

I found it very hard to find references to frame the interesting sound of Tumbledown. You can find traces of King’s X, Anathema, Jeff Buckley and the more contemplative moments of Last Crack and probably more. If you like well-crafted rockmusic, which also reveals Gagne’s keen ear for production, this is definitly of interest. This might be a homerecording, but you don’t hear that at all (although a professional producer might beg to differ, but I might beg to differ on industry standards just as hard in that respect). The world is flooded by selfreleased rock CD's these days but this is one that deserves to be heard.