Jack Garratt, as you know, has been tipped for the top and is well on his way to getting there. He’s got the BBC’s Sound of… award in one pocket, the critics’ choice gong from the Brits in another and is powering towards the number one slot in the album charts and a sold out headline show at Brixton Academy. So, does it actually matter if his debut, ‘Phase’, is any good?
Not really, no. But that’s not really his fault, and it’s abundantly clear that he’s not one for phoning things in. ‘Phase’ has its flaws, more on them in a moment, but it’s home to some meticulous songs that display technical precision and a sense of occasion. It is nothing if not well presented.
Beneath that sheen, though, is something more prosaic. For all the textural nods to James Blake or Jamie Woon, at its core this is an album by a singer-songwriter with a bleeding heart. Garratt has a lot more in common with James Bay, who finished second in last year’s BBC poll, than its winners, Years & Years, despite sharing banks of synths with the latter.
There's a phrase popular among rugby pundits: you have to earn the right to go wide. Basically, they're saying that any fancy footwork from your winger has to be built on graft and solid foundations. ‘Phase’ never lays that groundwork. There is no gentle lead in or testing of the water.
Subtlety isn't a great concern from the get go, leaving the overwrought thud of Coalesce’s chorus as a particularly unwelcoming opener, and Garratt doesn't so much as tug on the heartstrings as grab a handful and plunge Goldeneye-style into the abyss.
His lyrics hint at a deep well of pain, but do so in vague terms that speak more of petulance or melodramatic hurt than real feeling. And that’s when he’s not trading in motivational platitudes. “Won’t you breathe life into these dead lungs?’ he sings on Breathe Life’s otherwise peppy chorus. “My nights are broken up by the sounds of women I’ll never meet,” runs the first line of Worry. My House is Your Home, the nominally low-key closer: “I clothe my fears in the fabric of your dignity.” Chemical, though, is refreshingly self-aware by comparison: “My love is overdone, selfish and domineering.”
Garratt will be dismissed as nothing more than a bulletproof industry figure by some, and that’s just something he’s going to have to deal with. There are kernels of real quality here - Breathe Life, Far Cry and Weathered do good things at the top of the piece - but too often they are consumed by the overarching narrative. That might change in future, so write him off entirely at your peril.
Jack Garratt Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed March 30 2016 - DUBLIN Academy
Fri April 01 2016 - GLASGOW O2 ABC
Sat April 02 2016 - EDINBURGH Liquid Room
Mon April 04 2016 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Newcastle University Student Union
Tue April 05 2016 - LEEDS Leeds University
Thu April 07 2016 - BRISTOL O2 Academy Bristol
Fri April 08 2016 - BIRMINGHAM Institute
Sat April 09 2016 - MANCHESTER Albert Hall
Mon April 11 2016 - OXFORD O2 Academy Oxford
Tue April 12 2016 - NORWICH Norwich Nick Rayns LCR UEA
Fri April 15 2016 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton
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