Nathan Evans - 1994 '2024

Tracks list

       Like unpolluted birdsong or fitness king Joe Wicks’ countdown
buzzer, Nathan Evans singing sea shanties online is a sound that will always
take Britain back to the days of the pandemic. In particular, the Airdrie
artist’s viral take on whaling song “Wellerman” landed him a
chart-topping single in 2021 and a major-label record deal. For all the success
those covers brought the former postman, and all the joy they offered a
locked-down nation, his focus was always establishing himself as a
singer-songwriter of original material—a purpose this album serves well.

Evans’ warm songs of love, resilience, and optimism borrow liberally from
folk tradition: the busy banjoes and whiskey drinking of “Perfect
Storm”; the gleeful fiddle scribbling through “Highland Girl”;
and the haunted harmonies and intricately picked acoustic guitar of Foy Vance
collaboration “I’m a Man.” However, “Perfect
Storm”’s lyrical nod to Snow Patrol—“And now
we’re dancing where the band played ‘Chasing
Cars’”—is also instructive. “Days of Our Lives,”
which bounds into into Coldplay territory by shaping its adhesive melody around
club-ready synths and beats, and stirring pop ballad “100 Miles”
suggest ambitions that extend beyond hoedowns and campfires to arenas and
stadiums. There’s little on 1994 to say that would be a wild fantasy.

Tracklist:
1 Bonfire
2 Flowers In The Water
3 Driving To Nowhere
4 Heather On The Hill
5 I'm A Man
6 Highland Girl
7 100 Miles
8 Sweet Mountain Rose
9 Catch You When You Fall
10 Perfect Storm
11 Paper Planes
12 Days Of Our Lives 

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