Nigel Clothier writes lyrics you can both understand but identify with. His precisely crafted words reveal human emotions of love and life, yearning and desire overlaid with more than a touch of gentle cynicism. His album Face delivers those insightful lyrics through a medley of relaxed American folk tunes tinged with blues-influenced country rock. All the songs on Face are Clothier originals, with instruments and vocals by him too. Each song blessed with an insistent melody and an instantaneous hook that gets inside your head. The accuracy of Nigel’s lyrics is sharp enough to cut through the background noise in your head and immediately hit the remember me button. These are songs that sound so familiar you can’t believe they don’t live in your memory from some previous time. And there’s not an average song in this collection. They’re all excellent. You Come Here is direct enough to touch a familiar nerve. It’s the song you’re sure you’ve heard before and to add to the déja vu effect there’s more than a memory of an Orbison-style delivery. And damn good it is too. It’s followed by I’m Gone which, with a delicious fiddle accent, keeps the same flavour. It’s Alright skims along in a wave of jangling guitar, more perceptive lyrics with Nigel’s usual idiosyncratic metre and one-line rhymes - but it’s all the better for that. Born and Raised is a classic Americana story with the hallmark of a unforgettable song. If this doesn’t become the soundtrack to a landmark road movie there isn’t any justice. Bed of Rhythm thuds its lusty message through its mesmeric primal beat and haunting double-tracked voices. The gentle questioning of Half Full creates a striking song with the occasional unexpected rhyme that takes away any certainty of what to expect from the lyrics. I can hear this playing at the end of many parties. Then of course there’s the picturesque narration of Harvest Dance changing the mood back to lively expectation - another classic in the making. Ashton-in-Makerfield in the North-West of England may not be the first place to look for pure-blood Americana but think again, you’ll be hard-pressed to find better.
FolkWords
This is gentle, simplistic, unfussy and uncluttered with a less is more approach to the instrumentation and some delightfully poetic lyrics.
Steve Ward, Classic Rock Society
Here's an album that will creep up on you without you even realising it. Opener You Come Here is probably the rockiest tune of the album with a great country tinged feel to it and bouncy acoustic guitars ringing throughout and a slide guitar harmony in the background. Violins punctuate the upbeat I'm Gone and whilst it might be a bittersweet song, its upbeat nature keep the buoyant atmosphere of the album ringing through and there's something slightly Mark Knopler-ish (Dire Straits) about Clothier's voice there. There are some great acoustic guitar riffs througout the album too on tracks such as It's Alright, No Thanks (Clothier's Tears In Heaven) and closer Harvest Dance (which has a bit of that Classical Gas feel to it). Cheerleader has a real cool guitar riff as Clothier muses about football and girlfriends. The use of slide guitar is also very gentle and a highlight track is Eyes Grow Dim with a very country feel to it. Clothier knows how to write some bittersweet songs, about life and love and serenades you with this gentle musings. There's a great country tinge to his work and the acoustic guitars ring clearly and beautifully on a number of songs.
Justin, Entertainment Focus
There’s a distinct 1970s feel to much of it, somewhere between Gerry Rafferty and Fairport Convention, and this reaches its apogee with the final song, Harvest Dance, which is just crying out for the Conventioneers to record it.
JS, Maverick
His lyrics tend to be very much observational often dealing with the day to day aspects of life. This is song as a social record, the way it used to be. The trick is doing it in such a way people will want to listen to it. Clothier has definitely got that knack. "Face" is a word that can be interpreted in a lot of ways and so can the songs, they work on different levels, you can take them at surface level or dig deeper into them for a bit of extra meaning.
Neil King, Fatea
It’s Alright is a becalmed song of the sort that he does really well. He recalls someone like Jules Shear here, a craftsman of music rather than someone with a lot of flash and no substance. Cheerleader is a song with a funny lyric, speaking of love in sports metaphors. Words Weave a Spell is a sad song, though it’s lovely with it. He’s really good at songs like these. It’s a very nice album.
Anna Maria Starjnell, Collected Sounds
The album is packed with clever single lines that grab your attention even though the overall sound is very laid back and minimal. ‘Little English’ is the album’s most dynamic, a lone organ ballad alluding to ‘putting English’ on a cue ball, closes the album tightly and with strong imagery, Jackson Browne-like vocals and incredible backing harmonies. ‘It’s a Secret’ is a rich acoustic number and on opener ‘Here Tonight,’ Clothier sings one of his most clever and heartbreaking lines, “We watched the film in silence, twenty feet apart/surprised you didn’t hush me, you must have heard my heart.” Book of Days not only requires undivided attention, but it also warrants it, and is worth giving multiple listens.
Greg Newman, Bootleg magazine
I have listened to Nigel Clothier's "Book of Days" a few times and each time I find different facets that I enjoy. The title song, struck home for me, as I had played it the day after my husband and I had a similar conversation. It is a love song of the deepest kind.
Sally Schwartz, DaBelly.com
There is much packed into each song's story to maul over in your head. Each song lets out a little bit of what can be found in Nigel's heart. The release’s title, Book of Days, is very appropriate with each song acting almost like its own little chapter in a musical book.
C.W. Ross, Senior Writer, Indie Music Stop Review
He delivers some good, particularly inventive original songs as well as offering equally effective arrangements and solid vocals. Each track is like a mini story; particularly effective is the title tune, the sensitive Hepburn’s Run Away, the evocative Come North with haunting pedal steel and piano, and the sombre saloon ballad Hanging Out. While the singing is simple, the well-written lyrics will inevitably draw the listener in.
Alan Cackett, Editor, Maverick
Nigel Clothier has produced the first great album of 2008. Over the course of 11 songs Clothier takes you deep into both his heart and the heart of some exquisite music. Clothier's diction, the tunes and the downright love on songs such as the title track, Whisper in My Mouth and Little English will melt the hardest of hearts.
Joe Hawkins, Mudhutter
Clothier's lyrics are charmingly exact and exactly descriptive. His music is simplistic but precise and annoyingly catchy. Clothier does something here that's difficult to put in words - he makes you listen.
Toxic Pete
Season of the Rose shows off Clothier's sensitive vocals and inspired song writing as he laments lost love. Clothier sings wonderfully to a folk-inspired and sweet melody. Clothier's debut probably won’t cause much fuss as long as the media is obsessed with people with more cool credentials than good melodies, but he clearly deserves more.
Anna Maria Stjärnell, Luna Kafe
Every woman needs a Nigel Clothier! Book of Days holds many truths about love and life... this is what love is all about. Thank you for writing this lovely song, you sing it beautifully.
Susan N, Ambassador for R&R Music
Nigel Clothier makes great use of melody and understands the importance of a hook, particularly when you don't have a lot of time to snag your audience. Book of Days is rich in image, you know a lot of the references, some drawing on popular culture others on the human condition. Clothier's style is like bumping into someone you knew from years back. It also serves to remind that music does not have to be dark and harrowing in order to have legitimacy and be 'real'.
www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/releases.html
In the spirit of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, his music is gently spirited, calming waters running deep. His lyrics are a reflection on “the perfect imperfections” of love and life. With mellow vocal performance and the complex lyrical depths of a poet, the album speaks to the heart on an aesthetic and emotional level. The music is perfectly suited to introspection, contemplation, and a close slow dance on a rainy night. With the stark bareness of the instrumental arrangement, Clothier’s delivery is void of stadium glitz and glam. His approach is simple, honest, earthy. Sober and traditional, snappy and catchy, bluesy with a country twang, Book of Days is a satisfying journey from a seasoned artist with an understanding of the vulnerability that we often try to hide and skilled in the narrative song writing that immortalizes the human experience.
Kate Stephenson, myinditones.com
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