'Spiraling Up' by Carl Pemberton

Tuesday, 21 July 2009 , 1 Comments

Spinning Top All About You Carl Pemberton recently released his debut album entitled Spiraling Up, and I must say that this is quite an inspired first statement from such a novice songwriter. Although the entire album remains within the acoustic pop genre, the album is quite varied. While there are times when Carl is pouring his heart into a ballad of love, there are also times that the music takes over in quite a fierce way. An example of this would be track 02, entitled All About You, where a rapid chord progression is introduced half way through the song that leads the way for a speedy piano solo, and an even more intense drum solo. Although I will say that during this point the music seemed to loose a bit of its tightness, but I still applaud the creativity and diversity within the music itself (a little looseness within music never hurt anybody!). Something else I would really like to point out, is the attention to density within the music. The layering has been done in a tasteful way that gives the music a very dense, melody feel to it- typically there are two acoustic guitars that seem to be playing off each other, a rhythmic bass line, tightly written drum lines, and some really strong melodies (there are even times when harmonies of 2 or even 3 layers are present, which is always a pleasure to hear from such a strong voice). As songwriters, it is clear listening to this album that a lot of time had been taken to ensure that each song has an interesting sound to it, not so much a different sound, but an interesting sound. I would most compare this idea to The Red Hot Chili Peppers album Californication. Although this album sounds in no way like the music from Californication, the idea is the same where each song remains conceptually unique both rhythmically and melodically. It is rare to hear an album where song after song contains such unique rhythmic concepts- there is never a point in this album when the guitar is just 'strumming'. There is always a layer, or a harmony, or some sort of syncopated concept where one guitar may be playing off a line that the other guitar had done in the previous measure. Overall, this is a very strong first artistic and musical statement from Carl Pemberton, whose creativity shows real originality. There is a certain spark that few are ever able to achieve, but for those who do attain it, it can make the music become intoxicating. It gives each song the feeling as if a natural creativity was simply flowing through the writing process- the songs never come off as hard work, yet they never come off as boring or lazy. Carl seems to have that spark. www.myspace.com/carlpemberton

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