Jim Clements: Kill Devil Hills (CD on Fading Ways Music)

Band: Jim Clements
Label: Fading Ways Music
Title: Kill Devil Hills

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Band:Jim Clements
Title:Kill Devil Hills
Reviewed By:Daniel Cressey
Date Published:18/05/2005

Label:Fading Ways Music
Format:CD
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Jim Clements' 'Kill Devil Hills' is another example of the maudlin singer/songwriter album, characterised by tracks where the singer either feels sorry for himself or for anyone who crosses his path. This is not intended as a negative as it is also a great album, but the four opening songs are wonderful, and they set a standard that the remainder just fail to live up to.

Clear standout ‘Before the Beating Starts’ comes on like Alanis Morrissetee’s ‘Ironic’, if that had been written by Nick Cave and sung by Damien Rice. In it Clements relates how, in a cruel twist of fate, he met his true love three days late, when she’d already found another lover, one “so much like me he could be my brother”. He continues to mull over how to win her, with “a few choice words, perhaps a murder”. Track four, ‘Fletcher Christen’ is also brilliant and ‘Coming Up Roses’ is a suitably bitter love song from a man clearly used to being bitter.

The album, however, does loose its way latterly. Although Clements’s voice is very pleasant - and his songwriting equally good –over production and slight similarity between tracks conspire to make the listener begin to loose interest. An excess of instrumentation becomes slightly wearing and many of the songs seem unwilling to step too far outside of traditional motifs. For this reason you can become over familiar with them quite quickly.

'Kill Devil Hills' does only loose its way slightly though. This is a wonderfully pleasant listen. It’s full of catchy, well structured and downright great songs. If it fails to live up to all it leads us to expect, it is only because it has set the bar of expectation so high.

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'Wonderful" folk rock from Canadian-born, but London-based singer songwriter Jim Clements, only slightly marred by its latter part not quite living up to the expectations of its excellent first few tracks

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Kill Devil Hills - CD
'Wonderful" folk rock from Canadian-born, but London-based singer songwriter Jim Clements, only slightly marred by its latter part not quite living up to the expectations of its excellent first few tracks

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