I wanted the album to be like a jazz festival in the 1940s in the south of France, but set in some dingy bar on a rainy day
Alan Pownall
Welcome to the sound of summer 2010 – the stunning debut album from 25 year old Londoner Alan Pownall.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Pownall – who has toured with Noah and The Whale, Marina and the Diamonds - was just another folk troubadour with an acoustic guitar and a John Martyn box set, but with ‘True Love Stories’ Pownall proves he is much, much more.
“I wanted the album to be like a jazz festival in the 1940s in the south of France, but set in some dingy bar on a rainy day – like, it would have all those picturesque elements, but slightly twisted as well,” says Pownall of his sunshine dappled debut. “It was a very cathartic and a real learning experience for me, both technically and emotionally. To be honest it’s the first thing I’ve ever finished in my life.”
And thank goodness he did, because otherwise we’d never have got to hear Pownall’s gorgeous way with a heartfelt melody and impressive approach to a heartfelt storytelling lyric.
On top of his easy-rolling guitar style, Pownall’s songs are fleshed out by a small, unfussy rhythm combo, plus occasional violin embellishments provided by Noah & The Whale and Laura Marling’s fiddler Tom Hobden, as well as brass and twinkling percussion.
With a warm, vintage sound - a homage to the Eddie Cochran, Billie Holliday and Elvis records his grandparents played to him when he was younger – there’s a timeless quality in the delicate oompa of ‘Too Many Holes’ and classic songmanship of ‘Life Worth Living’.
The ska-inflected summer’s day shuffle of debut single ‘Chasing Time’ provides an upbeat counterpoint to the lovelorn ballad ‘Colourful Day’, a song so cinematic and irrepressibly British that it feels like it’s been lifted off the end credits to a Richard Curtis rom-com.
“I wanted this first album to be simple romance. There’s a reason why I called the album ‘True Love Stories’ – it’s supposed to be about either being in love with someone who doesn’t love you or being loved by someone who you don’t really love. So it’s make-believe in many ways. I long for the day that I can love someone and they can love me back. I’m just too complex! As soon as they show an interest I’m like ‘oh no, forget it’.”
Complex this former flatmate of Mumford and Sons and Jay Jay Pistolet might be, but ‘True Love Stories’ looks like an affair set to last.