Remember this: you are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. And, with that said, it’s just fine to enjoy something that’s done well, even if you’ve heard it all before. George Ezra has broken precisely zero moulds on his debut, ‘Wanted On Voyage’, but nevertheless it’s an engaging record imbued with great promise.
Much has been made of Ezra’s voice, a smoky baritone that makes him sound older than his 21 years, and it’s the album’s heartbeat. The folk trappings of his sound are given added weight and direction by his delivery, which is idiosyncratic enough to make him recognisable.
While his diction is another thing - Budapest’s chorus line, “I’d leave it all”, is recast as “oddly Devo” - Ezra is a confident, powerful presence. His lyrics, many influenced by a European sojourn in the wake of signing his deal, are honest and open, rippling with new-found independence and the fleeting angst of a young man making his way.
Budapest is a melodic highlight, while Cassy O’s raucous chorus allows Ezra to really let it go. Listen To The Man, propelled by its jaunty upstrokes, will bleed through the walls of a thousand university dorms come September, its hook creeping up almost unannounced and sticking around for a while.
As a short studio clips tells us prior to the underwhelming, vocoder-assisted Leaving It Up To You, ‘Wanted On Voyage’ is largely an album of “stomps and clicks and claps”, its charm as plain to see as its faults. Drawing Board is another late album song that fails to break out past its piano line and Mumford & Sons chorus, while the opening to Did You Hear The Rain? sounds suspiciously like someone doing a pub impression of Ezra’s vocal style.
Such criticisms are pretty minor at this stage, though. Ezra has the personality and voice to make a go of this whole troubadour thing, with ‘Wanted On Voyage’ also providing plenty of signposts to a bright future as a songwriter.
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