David Ward “The Arrival”
It’s all about the journey.
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Three separate EP’s make up “The Arrival”. “Departures”, “Borders” and “Arrivals” all brought together on Ward’s debut album consisting of 37 minutes in total – let’s hope he didn’t try to do all this when travelling through Heathrow, as he would never have made it.
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Emerging from a theatre background, Ward has produced four videos that will accompany this album's release late in July 2012, all of which obviously explore the travelling theme. An album spilt into three distinct parts, Ward can’t be pigeon-holed in his approach to his music.
Whilst the press release may espouse quotes from reviewers comparing him to Jeff Buckley, James Brown, Tom Waits, Stan Getz and Marvin Gaye; Ward is none of these. Yes his music meanders and wanders at times into territories frequented by the aforesaid artists, but he’s a long, long way from someone with Gaye’s (or the others’) abilities.
But, what Ward does have is the ability to move effortlessly from one genre to another, whilst maintaining his own voice. The soaring vocals of ‘Alice Blue’, the gentle tranquillity of ‘Feel This Way’ and the lightness of ‘The Deepest Blue’, which make up the “Borders” section of this album, and which just edges and outshines the first section, whereas the last episode just tries to be too soulful for its own good. So you have a choice. Buy the entire album or go for each EP individually. I’d opt for the latter and choose “Borders”.
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