"This Atlantic Low" takes the listener on a journey through space and time where singer/songwriter traditions meet modern day sounds. The lyrics are the usual subjects but often told through phrases that avoids the usual clichés. In general the lyrics are strong and no doubt that Chris Ford has a lot on his mind. The music is mostly intended as backing for Chris' quite unusual and soft voice but I really enjoy the center piece and the intro piece too. These pieces pay tribute to bands like Pink Floyd and Coldplay without being cold-hearted rip-offs or embarrasing wannabe's... they have their own sound: The Chris Ford sound. Great work from the two guys involved in this project and thanks for giving me a chance to listen to something that's just a bit different from the rest of the pop scene without being totally strange! So if you enjoy listening to pop and rock but also enjoy trying something that doesn't have to sound like flavor of the month, well this album is money well spend. Don't hesitate - buy it!
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This is one of the best new albums I have heard in the past five years. Chris Ford manages on this album to combine the pop song writing of the Beatles, Crowded House, Squeeze, and then adds a deeper, soulfullness that really gets inside your head in the same way that Damien Rice's O album or David Gray's White Ladder does. The musical links, instrumentals makes it quite unique. Enough comparisons for album that in some way isn't really comparible. Just buy it, enough said.
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Last weekend I had the considerable pleasure of listening to Chris Ford, live, in my living room. The event was a party to which he was invited with his wife who is a friend of my partner. We bought his album some time ago (in the way that you do to support the endeavours of friends who live at the other end of the country) but I hadn’t listened to it with any care. Nor did I realise what a talent I was about to meet. Now though, it will be some considerable time before ‘This Atlantic Low’ comes out of the CD player. Chris’s music has quality. It is melodious, interesting, well arranged and is played with consummate skill. It has been said of Suzanne Vega that every word is placed with precision; every musical phrase of Chris Ford’s is equally well placed and played. His lyrics are at times romantic, at others enigmatic and always worth the effort of understanding. I personally would prefer the production to favour his voice a little more.  Each of Chris’s reviewers seems to compare him with other musicians (possibly because he doesn’t care to ‘label’ his own music) but he most reminds me of Jonathan Kelly (Twice Around The Houses/Wait Until They Change The Backdrop). I’m biased; but if you like music with melody, well played, with lyrics worth the effort of listening to more than once, guitar and voice with a wide range of tone and interest; then buy his album or go and see him live. Personally I can’t wait for the new album (I’ve heard some potential tracks already) maybe we’ll have another party.
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