Richard Warren – Laments

Solo work under his own name is but the latest of many guises for Nottinghamshire lad Richard Warren. Formerly of The Hybirds and briefly of Spiritualized, he’s famous for having turned down Noel Gallagher’s invitation to join Oasis, a happening to which he is presumably bound to until the end of time. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the cover to Laments (taken by Steve Gullick of Tenebrous Liars) represents at least that many words which describe the record’s contents, of which “dark”, “murky” and “lacking in definition” particularly spring to mind.

Conversely, Laments is a somewhat misleading title, however helpfully the press release illuminated it with a dictionary definition. The album may often wrap itself with instrumental hallmarks of mourning and quasi-religious grief – which is to say organ and the fuzzy production – the songs themselves are sometimes relatively upbeat. In fact, this record sounds more than anything like a lament for Warren himself. On a number of songs the production makes him sound like a departed but still-vocal relative, channelled back to us by other players acting as conduits in a séance.

It’s actually an interesting effect, if an overused one, and it only really grates when it hits home that Warren doesn’t really have a whole heap of interesting things to say. Too often his lyrics employ the gamut of familiar platitudes, somewhat clumsily strung together. Worse still is his efforts at non-rhyming lyrics on penultimate track “Black Stone Empires”, on which he affects a superfluous drawl in a misguided effort to suit the reverent mood; “he fought for justice, never for glory”…

What Warren has tried to do is put together a rock record with dark soul elements, and to wrap it up in a hazily nostalgic production. On a basic technical level he has succeeded, capturing the essential elements of the styles, but ultimately his songwriting is too formulaic and his use of effects too unsubtle, the result being that the former drowns in the latter.