Search - Tom Mcrae :: All Maps Welcome

English Singer-Songwriter

WrtnWrd | Northridge, CA USA | 07/21/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tom McRae is an English singer-songwriter in the Damien Rice, David Gray, Nick Drake tradition. (He predates Rice, whom most resembles him, by a few years.) All Maps Welcome is his third release, and it continues a tradition of imaginative ruminations on lost love and the horrors of the modern world. He has an expressive, slightly high voice, used to great effect on ambient ballads (My Vampire Heart) and lowing midtempo numbers (How the West Was Won). His last CD, Just Like Blood, was a harrowing dead end -- impressive, yes, but limited in its depressive intensity. All Maps Welcome is more far-seeing, hopeful, with lovely new colors in the instrumentation."

Beautiful Music.

Chew Boon Wee Linus | Singapore | 09/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was highly recommended in the papers with very good reviews. So i was very pleased to have went out to get it. The songs are mostly quite sad, with very nice soundscapes on the background. In other words, a very sophisticated piece of excellent work! McRae's voice is also haunting, cool and emotive all at the same time. Not an easy feat, i think. Grab it while you can! 'Just Like Blood' the older album is just as interesting too!"

All songs welcome

Stephen Doig | New Zealand | 11/25/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tom McRae's self-titled debut from 2000 earned the English singer-songwriter favourable comparisons to Nick Drake, Tim Buckley and Bob Dylan. Unfortunately, the album itself was relentlessly dreary - like a month of non-stop rain. For all his intensity and intelligence, McRae sounded like a man weighed down by his influences. By his own admission, McRae sweetened the songwriting pill for his next effort 2003's Just Like Blood, and though he mightn't have cheered up much, his new songs were decidedly more compelling. McRae was now embracing his influences without being trapped by them.



2005's All Maps Welcome, rather wonderfully, is even better. It's the sound of an introspective, literate and impassioned songwriter at his most natural and unforced. What's also striking about his latest effort is the realization that the simpler McRae keeps things, the better. This is immediately evident on the beguiling opener `Song For The Restless' with it's beautifully understated arrangement and hushed, almost restrained vocals. McRae then niftily repeats this trick over and over again throughout All Maps Welcome, with each successive track containing a lovely, unfurling melody and a gripping sense of doomed-romanticism.



Without doubt, Tom McRae has never sounded better than on All Maps Welcome. Whatever wonders might be left to come from him, this album could well remain his crowning achievement.



Like This? Try>

David Ford - I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused"