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Equal parts The Streets, David Gray, a tiny dab of The Smiths and a bigger daub of the ill-fated Bluetones, Passenger is the stunningly articulate Brighton-based band bound to set the world on fire. Reared on Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Van Morrison, singer/songwriter Mike Rosenberg had intended to make a traditional, stripped-down album based on his lithe melodies and modern-day fables, then he met his match in soundtrack composer Andrew Phillips--Passenger was born.

Reinventing the pop wheel is small stuff for our friends in the UK, every 10 years or so finds them coughing up brilliant bands (Lodger, Super Furry Animals come to mind) who are seemingly indebted to the panoply of pop history, yet breathing with new found life and power. Passenger's bracing guitars, spirited melodies and sad hearted sentiments run up against a potential problem on the band's full throated debut, Wicked Man's Rest. Namely, Rosenberg's twee vocals. Sounding like that red haired dweeb from Simply Red crossed with a stoned, howling reggae punter, Rosenberg potentially sinks his band's miraculous pop tunes. But ultimately, the strength of Passenger's songs carries the day and washes you past the 23 year old singer's vocal flotsam.

"Night Vision Binoculars" is a perfect case in point. By turns dreamy, driven and emotionally demonstrative, it chirps of '80s synths and '90s space blips and beats, its full forward chorus delivering the song's release in feelgood, guitar shimmy-ing magic plunder. Rosenberg just wants to walk his girl home, after all, and we hope his jealousy at her eventual choice of romantic mate doesn't change his sunny demeanor to black-hearted rage.

Wicked Man's Rest is laced with multiple moments of easy attraction: the bittersweet rap-lite of the stunning title track; The Who meets Kings Of Convenience reverie of "Do What You Like"; the Nick Drake death beauty of "For You"; the anthemic guitar strum of "Walk in the Rain."

Rosenberg's vocals aside, some may still find Passenger on the twee side of rock and roll buffoonery--we simply hail them for their sincerity.

 

Passenger
"Night Vision Binoculars" (mp3)
from "Wicked Man's Rest"
(Cooking Vinyl USA)

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Passenger
"Night Vision Binoculars" (mp3)
from "Night Vision Binoculars"
(Cooking Vinyl USA)

Buy at Rhapsody
More On This Album

 

Sidestepper & The Buena Vibra Sound System: After Passenger's soothing tones, Sidestepper shakes up the joint with mad Afro-Columbian beats.

IODA: "Usually there are just two places you can go to hear a five-hour DJ set of Afro-Colombian electronic-meets-roots dance music: Bogota and London. In walks Sidestepper. Though they've made waves with past recordings, The Buena Vibra Sound System is the first album to capture the vibe of their dance club lineup in all its variety.

It may be hard to imagine that a British DJ/musician could get so immersed in the politics of race in a South American country, but that is exactly what happened to Sidestepper founder Richard Blair. It all started when Blair stumbled across a recording session of Afro-Colombian matriarch Totó La Momposina while he was working as an engineer at Peter Gabriel's Real World studios. ‘It sounded like Jamaican music, but deeper and more mystical,' says Blair. ‘There were African drums, but not really. The whole thing took my head off.'

Sidestepper
"La Paloma" (mp3)
from "The Buena Vibra Sound System"
(Palm Pictures)

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