Tim Williams - Merchant Heart EP

It's always a pleasant surprise to pop in a CD with absolutely no expectations and actually enjoy what you hear. This was the case with the new Tim Williams' EP I received a couple of days ago from Dovecote Records. The Merchant Heart EP features 5 tracks (2 of which are demos) from the upcoming When Work is Done LP.

This effort consists of haunting acoustic-based songs with sparse instrumentation and some fine hushed vocal melodies. There's scarcely anything on the EP that we all haven't heard many times before, but Williams succeeds where countless others fail. Most modern singer-songwriters struggle to avoid the seemingly irresistible need to over-emote, but Williams' tunes contain the rare characteristic of being affecting and personal while remaining subtle. In a genre brimming with semi-talented dime-a-dozen d-bags playing the sensitive singer-songwriter card in the hopes of getting laid (I'm looking at you James Blunt, Howie Day, et. al.), his tunes come across as both passionate AND genuine. This ability to effectively convey emotion and feeling without beating the listener over the head with it (i.e. restraint) makes his songs downright pleasant and allows them to be absorbed effortlessly.

I've struggled for 15 minutes trying to describe his music in a way that wouldn't seem terribly average or just plain boring on paper and I've obviously failed miserably. The point is simple-- this EP showcases a talented young singer-songwriter with a wealth of potential. If the tunes present on this EP are any indication, this guy's upcoming full-length could be something special.



MP3: Tim Williams - "Novel"
MP3: Tim Williams - "I Am Wearing It"



Buy the album here.