The return of the ginger dreadlocked one! (Rebuilt By Humans - Newton Faulkner)

Member Name: sakura8

Product:	Rebuilt By Humans - Newton Faulkner
Date:	15/10/09 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some really great tracks

Disadvantages: Some pointless fillers

Newton Faulkner burst onto the music scene with his hit 'Dream Catch Me' and his excellent cover version of Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' on his album 'Hand Built By Robots' in 2007.

With a strange name and appearance (long ginger dreadlocks), he's not your typical musician pin-up, which is great as his folk-rock music and talent speaks for itself. His unique guitar playing style is jaw-droppingly impressive, as he uses it as a drum just as much as a guitar. I saw him live in November 2007 and I was blown-away and I was eagerly anticipating his next album.

'Rebuilt By Humans' is his follow-up album, apparently named because he broke his wrist after slipping on ice and doctors had to rebuild it with a metal plate. The question is, does it suffer from the 'difficult second album syndrome'? And will his guitar playing be as good as before?!

Well the first single released from the album was 'If This Is It' and it is a blinder of a song and it's easy to see why it was chosen as the first single. It starts off slowly and then builds into a crescendo of fantastic harmonies and vocals. I love the huskiness of Newton's voice on this track. The video is impressive as well and really compliments the song well. It features people frozen in time; very similar to when Hiro Nakamura from Heroes bends time and space.

As with his first album there are some outstanding tracks on this album, but there are also quite a few fillers. I personally don't like the 'Intros' and 'Interludes' that he insists on including. I also find that the 'She's Got The Time 2 interlude' (which is a basic re-jig of 'She's Got Time' from his first album) is a complete waste of space.

So I do find myself pressing the fast forward button quite a lot, but once I get to a track that I love, then I find myself pressing the rewind button to listen to it again! As well as 'If This Is It' my favourite tracks are 'Won't Let Go', 'Over and Out' (his next single) and 'So Much'. Throughout the whole album there is an air of melancholy in the lyrics, but the music itself on these tracks is actually quite upbeat and uplifting. He somehow starts a song in one direction, then manages to do a U-turn and change it completely. It's like he leads you into a solemn quiet house and then lets you out the back door to run around in the garden - clever stuff indeed.

The jaunty comical offerings that were on his first album are absent on this one. In some ways I think this is a good thing as it shows how his music is maturing. However, it was those humorous tracks that made his live shows so memorable as it made audience participation a key part of the show.

Even though this album is a mixed bag in terms of good and so-so songs, I'm still really looking forward to seeing him perform live again next week at Shepherd's Bush! I hope he'll play some of his old stuff as well as the new album, but at least he'll always have his rendition of Spongebob Squarepants to fall back on!

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Even though it's from his old album, you must check out him playing an acoustic version of Teardrops in a lift as an example of his guitar playing skills: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjT86g9gTKk

Summary: An album that grows on you.