Alphabet Of Hurricanes, the fifth album from English troubadour Tom McRae, is a frustrating listen. Frustrating because it hints at just how good and inventive a musician McRae can be. Unfortunately, whilst he has inspired moments, he is just as likely to pander to his inner James Morrison and play it safe. McRae should be taking us on exciting detours, to the places less seen and heard. Instead we are, all too often, mired firmly in the middle of the road.
Things start promisingly enough with the Ed Harcourt style shuffle of ‘Still Love You’. Meanwhile, ‘Won’t Lie’ speaks of McRae’s years of constant touring and haphazard collecting of musical bric-a-brac, with slivers of Balkan folk and Eastern European influences congealing beneath that lived-in vocal. Beirut would be proud of such fare. Then comes the fall. ‘Summer Of John Wayne’ – great title aside – is a stodgy guitar meander that only threatens drama, ‘American Spirit’ is wearisomely snail-paced and ‘Please’ is a slice of over-inflated bombast. It needn’t be this way.
‘Told My Troubles To The River’ surges ever forward, it is dynamic, exciting and fit to power a hydroelectric plant. There is delightful clarity to ‘Best Winter’, its clean-struck notes, ethereal backing vocals and carried-on-a-breeze memories proving genuinely moving. However, songs such as these only reinforce the feeling that McRae is too snugly wrapped in the safety blanket of his sad-hearted and downtempo world.