Sam Isaac : Bears
Cutthroat minefield is an accurate description of the music world I think, and I’m sure that thousands of unsigned acts would nod their heads in bitter concurrence. Sam Isaac on the other hand has an air of someone who is more likely to offer a label executive a slice of cake rather than a plea to give him a contract. This is a man whose music is for the enjoyment of creation. His music is hard to pin down, because at first you think his nonchalance and frivolity smacks of naïveté. Give his latest album “Bears” a listen through and you quickly realise that isn’t the case and actually he is just a man who takes pleasure in what he does. Like Jack Johnson but without the eco agenda.
I have read opinions of how esoteric his music can be. Far from it. This all-encompassing fun-pop is the kind of stuff that newly arrived university students would happily while away their summer days listening to. The melodies are permanently upbeat which is risky, but works. His voice has an untroubled mellowness to it, not strained or affected, just natural. The themes are like any young person – relationship angst, inquisitiveness at the natural world and joie de vivre. There is a sense of conventionality but Isaac never feels dull and never tries to make standard subject matter anything that it’s not. His signature tune from the album, “Sideways” is the exhibitor of this – “We’ll get bicycles/ride down hills/to the river with friends/and light candles in tin cans/go on big wheels” – a paean to youthful exuberance. If you heard this on an American Pie or Juno-esque soundtrack, I would not raise an eyebrow.
Whilst “Sideways” is the one he is known by critics for, the song that follows it, “Berlin”, is the track that both defines his ethos and highlights his skill as a songwriter. The care-free lyrics of travels to foreign climes, excessive drinking are wonderfully captured around gentle melodies and harmonies of piano, acoustic guitar and brass interludes. To say that there are touches of Eels to this song is an accolade I rarely use.
The return to romantic matters tires slightly by “I Traded My Friends For You” but the laddish backing lyrics, which have been surreptitiously ever-present, have more resonance here and redeem Isaac’s persistence to talk about an ex. Besides, the use of glockenspiel is novel and fun, and the vocals so infectious and welcoming. The end to the album is frustrating because Isaac’s acoustic guitar ballad with poignant string accompaniment – “What Good Did That Do?”, shatters the unthinking delight which sad characterized the record thus far. Worse still, his voice takes a nosedive into the exact annunciation and sound of The Kooks’, mind numbingly dull Luke Pritchard. The fact that this track is over five minutes long – and suggests that this is the pinnacle of his emotional range – pours cold water over the excitement that came before. He carries this through to the end with “Apple Tree”, another track which negates the zest of previous songs such as “Fire Fire”. This blot will temper any heady thoughts of Sam Isaac being a complete musician, but even the greatest have those oddities on their records that make you wonder how good they really are, and for Isaac they are few and far between.
3/5
Words: John Elmes
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