Post Description

Title: Wouter Hamel - Nobody's Tune
Label: Dox Records (DOX057 LC14003)
Released: 2009


Review (www.jazzandsoul.eu)
Wouter Hamel is one of the pioneers for the new generation.One of the most interesting, new artists lately, emerging from Holland is Wouter Hamel. His self - titled debut album impressed heavily as Hamel managed to blend jazz, soul and pop to come up with original, accessible fresh and airy pop songs that easely excited a large audience of listeners.
Certainly not an easy task to match this performance, so you can imagine we were more than curious when his highly anticipated follow - up, Nobody's Tune dropped in.
And Wouter Hamel has grown, that's a fact.
Gaining confidence from his well - received debut, Hamel has been expanding and exploring his boundaries as an artist and doesn't avoid risks to sculpt his new songs. While often, this turns out to be a negative factor on a lot of albums, making them a bit pointless and sloppy, Nobody's Tune steps up. Intriguing till the last note, showing a full grown artist and announcing the birth of a mature album.
Wouter Hamel possesses a strange kind of playfulness, frivoulity and always manages to remain catchy. Songs that don't sound complicated, but when you listen closely, are clearly built by the hand of a master and are well thought about (a lot of respect here for co - arranger and producer Benny Sings). I can't help it, but this kind of sound, reminds me of the originality of the Beatles in many ways.
About Nobody's Tune, Hamel says : "we used the most unusual instruments to create our own sound." Undoubtly these impulses are an enrichment and gently push the tracks towards a whiff of folk, some Klezmer and even a bit of Carribean ... successful as decoration without ever getting too bombastic.
I'm not going to point out favourites on this CD. First of all, I wouldn't know how to pick them, as all tracks are little pearls by themselves. Secondly ... it wouldn't be fair as Nobody's Tunes serves as a broad palet of variation, with songs that are difficult to compare with one another. No doubt that it will attract all kinds of fans and music addicts.
Nobody's Tune has become an album that co - ordinates decennia of music, with nostalgia from the 60's and 70's and the defiancy of the 80's and 90's. Wouter Hamel simply is one of the pioneers for the new generation. Certainly a buy as it is highly recommended.  

Tracklist:
1. One more time on the merry-go-Round
2. Big blue Sea
3. When morning Comes
4. In Between
5. Nobody's Tune
6. Sir Henry
7. March, april, May
8. Quite the Disguise
9. Once in a Lifetime
10. Tiny Down
11. See you once Again
12. Amsterdam