Steve Adey - All Things Real

Someone should give Steveo a nudge and tell him to lighten up

Album Review by Suzanne Mitchell | 16 May 2006
Album title: All Things Real
Artist: Steve Adey
Label: Grand Harmonium
Sounding like a graduate (with honours) from the Damien Rice School of Misery, Edinburgh songsmith Adey warbles his way through 10 tracks of lamentation, each song's piano arrangement indistinguishable from the last. Tackling a Bob Dylan classic on your first album, or at any time for that matter, can be a serious gamble. Almost predictably, his version of Shelter From The Storm fails to win the wager, turning it into a laboriously somber eight minutes and three seconds of self-indulgence. Intended to be emotional and intimate, but coming across as monotonous and gloomy, 'All Things Real' often lacks the charisma of Adey's assumed counterparts. The one redeeming feature on display here is a cover of Bonnie "Prince" Billy's I See A Darkness, albeit delivered once again sans the charm of the original. Someone should give Steveo a nudge and tell him to lighten up. With two covers and three songs lasting less than two minutes, this is not an impressive debut step. [Suzanne Mitchell]
All Things Real' is out now. http://www.steveadey.com/