Smith & Burrows

Smith & Burrows may sound like a hardware store in a remote, timeless village somewhere in deepest darkest Yorkshire, the sort of place that hasn't changed for the best part of fifty years but that can always be relied upon to sell you exactly the right type of screws you were looking for, where as in actuality they are a musical duo made up of Tom Smith and Andy Burrows. 

Tom Smith will be better known to you as the lead singer with Birmingham band Editors and Andy Burrows, whilst having a substantial back catalogue of solo material, will probably be more widely remembered for his roles in Razorlight and We Are Scientists. The pair formed a friendship many, many years ago and that originally culminated in them releasing an album of Christmas themed songs almost a decade ago. Their debut album, 'Funny Looking Angels', released in November 2011, featured covers that included Katie Melua's 'Wonderful Life' and Yazoo's 'Only You' and was characterised by it's soft harmonies and Folk-centric instrumentation. 

Continue reading: Smith & Burrows - Only Smith & Burrows is Good Enough Album Review

Miniature super group (well, duo) do a Christmas album - quite frankly this could potentially be an absolute career nose dive but for Smith & Burrows, this is pretty much the opposite; a real gem. Editors' Tom Smith and ex-Razorlight and We Are Scientists musician Andy Burrows' festive themed album that track lists originals alongside covers, grew out of a couple of collaborative cover versions as the first time Smith has collaborated with anyone other than his own band.

Funny Looking Angels opens with a very slow and atmospheric version of the first verse of the carol 'In The Bleak Midwinter' over a pedal organ note which builds itself into an epic conclusion with Coldplay-esque layers of orchestration including of course a chiming festive glockenspiel. The single 'When The Thames Froze' opens with an echoing piano accompaniment to Tom Smith's distinctive low, icy, cold and lonely vocals. The tracks' accompaniment then builds with layers of Salvation Army Band-esque brass and swooping strings underpinned by a military snare to push into a moving and hopeful, powerful chorused vocal chorus. The dominance of the piano continues through 'As The Snowflakes Fall', this time beneath Burrows' Badly Drawn Boy-like meandering folky vocals throughout this atmospheric down-tempo ballad that's ridden with layers of vocal harmony.

Continue reading: Smith & Burrows, Funny Looking Angels Album Review