Nick Waterhouse is another retro-R&B stylist in the vein of Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse, with the kind of analogue obsession that suggests even the valves of his heart glow: this debut album was even cut on the same Gold Star Studios lathe used by Phil Spector.
But you can't knock results that bear out Waterhouse's ear: “Is That Clear” has the youthful brashness of the early Stones, while “Say I Wanna Know” boasts both a trenchant Fifties swing and a Raelettes-style confidence about its backing vocals. Waterhouse's own voice is slightly under-recorded, but the musical settings – the understated Telecaster twang, the honking horns, the rumbling tom-toms – always churn with the right degree of roadhouse charm.
Download: Say I Wanna Know;Is That Clear; Time's All Gone
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