Track Of The Day ARTS & LETTERS
Most likely a few wise long-time bloggers have felt, listening to the raggedy timeless melodies from the tormented, problematic, and gifted Australian musician based in Claire, Caleb Carr, heartfelt memories of their musical past on which it was worth lingering, insisting and fostering even when the results were at times uncertain and sketchy while revealing a distinctive flair to deliver an ’80s inspired jangly guitar-driven pop sound with nods to early Creation, C86, Sarah Records and streaks of Postcard of Scotland.
It seems the warm support has somehow helped in a period of lack of confidence and pain, so much so that a very short distance from the recent sophomore EP under his moniker, English Summer, I was about to take care of, here is the fresh news: a new moniker, Arts & Letters, a brand new debut single, “Tell Me Your Secrets”, albeit same greyish, tuneful and melancholic British moods.
“Tell Me Your Secrets” rumbles out through a meandering sparkling slather of jangly guitars, underpinned by snaky softly pulsing basslines and steady drum beats, ringing atop angsty, nostalgic vocals waxing and waning with high strung anxiety and comforting intimacy to evoke fear, anticipation, and melancholy from the darkness of secret shadows.
Last week’s 5-track EP, “Holding Against Our Own”, flutters and meanders on shimmering guitar textures and comforting emotional croons, raising with nostalgic longing and heartfelt dreams, interspersed by a couple of airy and uplifting gently chiming instrumentals, the ’70s soft-rock inspired’ “Last September”, with subtle hints of early Ben Watt and the even more buoyant “Celebration”, from the get-go walks away from toxic behaviours to turn to inspirational ideas for making the best of what you have, the hopefully romantic Sarah records-inflected “An English Summer’s Day”, soon followed by the heart-warming and embracing “Holding Against Our Own”, and then encouraging himself/others to move forward despite life’s hard times with the genuine long lost love closing “Kris”, strewn of twinkling drifts of hope.
The new song and the new alias confirm the previously elicited immaculate sense of digging deeply into the past as a way and foundation to move forward while retaining his inescapable organic pervading sense of vulnerability cloaked in genuine wistfulness.
The magic of the most essential pop is all in a matter of a few brittle, at times crooked melodies, Caleb has the knack at unveiling his own take in a constant fashion.
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