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Kid Harpoon – “Once” (2009)

It’s crazy to think it’s been four years since I was first introduced to Kid Harpoon. Jerry may have had Dorothy at ‘hello’, but Kid Harpoon had me at ‘bric a brac’. At that point in time, he was one man armed with a guitar, a raw voice, and an arsenal of songs about lost dreams and forgotten faces. He ran in the same musical circles as Mystery Jets, Larrikin Love, Les Incompetents, and The Maccabees –all of whom I had just recently discovered and helped introduce me to a world of music I hadn’t known existed. These young bands were starting to make their mark in the British music scene and since then have released first and second albums and garnered fans worldwide, with the exception of Les Incompetents who parted ways in 2006 and Larrikin Love who split in 2007 after releasing their debut The Freedom Spark.

Somehow, Kid Harpoon fell behind. Sure, he released two highly acclaimed EPs and built a solid fanbase around Britain thanks to his energetic live shows, but he never quite managed to take off in the same manner as his contemporaries. After months of writing and recording, Harpoon scrapped his album and began the process all over again. Now after two years, we finally have his debut album Once. But, is it too little too late?

First single “Stealing Cars” opens the album with its happy, gangly guitars as Harpoon realizes falsetto dreams singing “I feel like I’m alive/ With you as we drive”. The rainbows and sunshine continue with the summery “Back From Beyond”, whose upbeat tempo and catchy hook are enough to make you forget that maybe the song isn’t as happy as it sounds: “Did you see the way that I was when I was down?/All I need is a helping hand/Someone safe to guide my landing back from beyond.” “Flowers by the Shore”, “Hold On”, and “Marianna” keep the joyful party going, all armed with poppy hooks and toe-tapping beats.

But then, sprinkled in between all these lively numbers are songs like “Colours,” “Running Through Tunnels,” “Death of a Rose,” and “Buried Alive.” These songs find Harpoon going back to his roots, so to speak, opting for a more stripped down sound.  The almost minimalist approach to these songs highlight Harpoon’s impressive vocal range and bring the focus back to his songwriting and those dark lyrics that had become his signature: “Red is the colour of blood when I cut myself/ And I’m bleeding but that’s not a bad thing/ Red is the colour of poppies and sports cars/ A strong symbol of liveliness”. The addition of strings on “Buried Alive” is probably one of the most genius decisions made on the album, as they catapult the song into the heartwarming tearjerker it was meant to be: “Wandering feet, discovered the world/ Broken and sore, fell in love with a girl who’s now gone”. Once closes with another Harpoon classic, “Childish Dreaming”, a slower, lyrically-sombre number with Harpoon’s sweet, whispered vocals and the sound of his acoustic guitar at the forefront.

Overall, the album doesn’t seem to have a clear direction. It’s almost as if Kid Harpoon combined his debut album and follow-up into one to make up for lost time, switching back and forth between the musician he is today with who he was as an artist in 2005. After all the sunny overproduction and catchy pop hooks scattered throughout the album, there must be a reason Harpoon chose to close the album he worked so hard on with “Childish Dreaming” when it could have just as easily been “Marianna”. Though there’s nothing wrong with writing great songs which have that born-to-be-a-radio-hit quality, perhaps Harpoon felt it necessary to leave listeners with a reminder of why they fell in love with his music in the first place all those years ago: the beautiful simplicity of his voice, his guitar, and his songwriting. The same reasons Harpoon is sure to make new fans.

October 10, 2009 at 9:41 am Leave a comment