London native TD Lind has been around; he’s done the London pub circuit, played Jazz piano in Paris before jetting over to the states to from a band in LA performing the blues in Memphis and New Orleans. Not only that, he’s worked with Wilco and Ozzy Osbourne. Quite an impressive, if a little erratic, CV. So what can we expect from this, his debut album. If his past is anything to go by, a mixed bag of styles and influences is to be expected, and that’s exactly what you get.

What Lind has created here is an album designed for coffee tables and supermarkets everywhere. What I mean by this is the music on display here is aimed at the same market as The Feeling or James Blunt and Morrisson. Music that is picked up my mums doing the weekly shop thinking that they are buying something ‘current’ or ‘hip’. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that, there’s obviously a market for it and these artists sell a hell of a lot of records. It all becomes clear when you discover that the man behind the sound of this album is Rupert Hine, hit making producer extroadinaire and the man at the helm of (look away now) Tina Turners ‘Private Dancer’.

So you’re scared now I take it? Well, its not actually that bad. Lind’s problem is that there are too many ideas and styles being thrown around. What he makes up for in terms of creativity and writing a catchy tune he loses in identity. The record sounds all over the place, lost in a sea of production. Current single ‘Radio Proposal’ sounds like a homage to 70′s pop sensations Supertramp, ‘Jesus Christ’ is a full on gospel onslaught and the Dylanesque rap of ‘Come In From The Cold’ is just downright confusing.

TD Linds finds his niche when he loses the bells and whistles and gets down to basics. What he produces then is his own take on Americana. Country tinged songs of ex-lovers and nights out on the town. There is a stark beauty to tracks such as ‘I’m Not Worried’ and ‘A Bird Flew’ that could make Lind this countries answer to Josh Rouse – if he could only lose the heavy production that is weighing what could be a fairly promising debut album down.

Links
TD Lind [official site] [myspace]