Richard Stevenson - Promises Promises By Daniel Laney

Richard Stevenson's fourth musical treat! STOP THE PRESS!

I must admit getting motivated in the morning is one of the hardest things I have to achieve. Outside its cold and wet, mushy decaying leaves lie everywhere and a shed load of bills await you at the front porch and you know full well that the postman has taken great pleasure wedging as much junk mail and any other unimportant wastes of paper through the post box. However this morning a small parcel lay amongst the clear panel envelopes. Inside was a perfect mid morning pick me up; the new demo CD by local artist Richard Stevenson.

Richard may not be an in your face punk outfit, nor is he trying to reach pretentious metal band status. This is Richards's third DIY independent release entitled Promises Promises, and is as much seminal and thought provoking as it is honest and passionate. The opening track You Say Anything is a truly brilliant example of Richards sound. He takes blues and folk inspiration and cleverly multiplies it with rhythms and a tempo that can be comfortably linked with such contemporary groups as The Strokes and The Zutons.

However, please don't plant seeds of thought that Richard is just another artist that can be compared to the The band style that plagues the airwaves. You Say Anything can be put along side such brilliant songs that were created by a young Bob Dylan in the early sixties. Cunningly, Richard has managed to disguise a melancholy and dark theme by covering it up with an infectious jovial rhythm that will stick in your head for hours afterwards. You Say Anything would be a great song to see live at a huge open air concert on a Sunday afternoon and its possible to imagine the cheers of the crowd as they respectively recognise this contagious number. It's safe to say that you must listen to this track and try to figure out what Richard is saying.

Waiting, the demo's second track is far from the upbeat tempo found in You Say Anything, however it is possible to hear the unique style of the artist come blazing through. The song is a mixture of ups and downs, you can easily find yourself getting comfortable within the verse and suddenly Richard pulls you back into life and insists you listen. He manages to achieve an emotional high that physically grips your gut and merges it with your heart into a feeling that cannot be described. This song is definitely for fans of such artists like Damien Rice and Bush, but the great thing about Richard's sound is that it is universally appealing. Again, this second track can be compared to a nasty cold, its so easy to catch and almost impossible to shrug it off. Beautiful.

Promises Promises the demo's title track has a riff that resembles the song Beat Your Heart Out by The Distillers. Its definitely a track the can make you nod therapeutically and holds host to lyrics that are so true to life. Again pulling away from the upbeat tempo we originally heard, Promises Promises follows a much more bluesy direction and at the same time holds some mystical energy that Damien Rice has perfected.

Lyrically the songs theme sounds like a lover begging to hold his/her relationship and would literally do anything. However, Richard is extremely clever by giving songs the potential to capture more than one meaning, its literally what you want it to be. The final track On and On is a trip back to the upbeat tempo we first found ourselves listening to when putting on the CD. A soft rock sound that could be related to the resonance R.E.M capture, On and On is extremely simple it has taken music and ripped it down to its bare roots.

Armed only with an acoustic guitar and the power of voice, simplicity has become far more intriguing than any music that had previously concerned itself with being artistic and multi tracking a whole wall of sound. For this we have Richard Stevenson to thank. One man and his guitar may seem something of the past, when hearing this it could be said its now the future of music. Its hard to actually think of words to describe this demo CD, maybe its because I cant get the melodies out of my head and thus blocking my ability to think of other words apart from those that keep swirling around my thoughts.

Or maybe it is because the sound encapsulated on this CD is so refreshing and original words become clumsy tools to do the music justice. Richard is from Hornsea near Hull currently studying English at York; however feel free to contact him: Email: RGS103@YORK.AC.UK Phone: 07791762327 Also Available By Rich on CD: Home Again (2001) Put your Hat On (2002) The Way We Was (2003)

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