Bill Coleman has worked his socks off. He’s been on the Irish music scene for a while, honing and perfecting his sound. I happened to stumble upon a performance on Saturday last in the Mercantile on Dame St, Dublin and the man himself gave me a copy of his Black & Blue EP. So what’s it like ?
Well, Bill Coleman is more than just a singer songwriter. Live, solo, he has enough energy and stage presence to knock four or five members of any band into touch. ‘I want you to know’ shows this energy from its opening kick drum ‘oh eh’ refrain. Coleman has cleverly combined the live feel of a band with electronic noises and effects. The song has lots of lyrics and Coleman impresses with his ability to not make the track sound overcrowded or confining. The track seems to keep building up more and more until the last notes. Cracker.
Crossfire has a more minimalist style of production, again Coleman uses his vocal hooks to build up the track. He has a knack of writing songs that really suit and bring out the best of his vocals. Church of Second Chances builds from an electronic drumbeat and showcases Coleman’s voice and his lyric writing ability.
Last track on the EP is ‘Welcome to the Breakdown’ (Joe’s No Handbag Disko Remix), this totally messes with people’s perception of what a singer songwriter is. This track could fully complete the acknowledgement that Bill Coleman is an electronic artist who writes great music and just happens to play acoustic guitar when he does it.
Bill Coleman just keeps getting better and better. I could listen to this all day.