Off With His Head!: Exploring the buzz surrounding Scotland’s new songwriting prodigy.
As you dip your toes into the strangely beautiful world of Simon Doherty, your first paddle granted by this self-titled E.P. opens your eyes to a rich environment of colours and quirkiness. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic and clichéd, what is perhaps most evident as you move through the track listing is that each song really has its own personality and atmosphere, and soon begins to take the form of a collection of vivid tales with lucid mental images.
As the intro to ‘The Joker and the Queen’ is extinguished with a writhing guitar hook, the lights suddenly go down and you’re being told a love story of impenetrable imagery by a sleepy raconteur in a midnight bar. Somewhere between three and a half and four minutes later you open your eyes to the jaunty sea-fairing rhythms and clear blue skies of ‘One of These Days’, before being whisked off to more sinister territory, led by the eager hand of someone of somewhat unsettling metal stability. These are just my perceptions; I’ll leave the rest of the E.P. up to your imagination…
To take from this the impression of a sort of whirlwind Alice in Wonderland-esque adventure wouldn’t be too wide of the mark; however it would ignore the fact that at the heart of these songs lies an original flair for songwriting and an educated sense of musicality. The story each song tells doesn’t arrive solely from the lyrics, but is the product of the instrumentation, delivery and song structure as well. With each track written in its entirety by Simon, he demonstrates an acute sensitivity to dynamics, textures and the emotional responses to chord structuring which shows that beneath the quirk and surreal, each track is built on the foundations of a pure and focused songwriting talent. This talent, as the sleeve attests, has seen his work hand-picked for production from Mark Plati (David Bowie, The Cure), and with tracks like ‘The Joker and The Queen’ and ‘The Boy Who Had Everything’ screaming out for (and currently receiving) radio airplay, Simon Doherty and his recently assembled live band look set to make big waves in 2010.
Listen to the tracks at myspace.com/simondohertymusic
