“The experiment works… all the reworkings are worthy of a listen.”
“An interesting conceit… a starker listen, with many of the songs stripped back.”
Staying local, in fact, rooting around AUK’s spiritual home of Liverpool, we have an album which is a bit of an oddity and a salute to a Liverpool songwriter. John Jenkins released his latest album, “Restless Hearts”, a few months ago, getting an 8/10 review from us. “Too Many Roads” is basically “Restless Hearts” reimagined and is delivered by 12 acts who each cover a song from the original album. A bold move, really, tempting hubris, tempered perhaps by Jenkins offering the album as a free download. Anyhow, the experiment works, and while the reworkings in themselves are all worthy of a listen, it’s instructive to listen to them in tandem with the original album. It’s a starker listen, with many of the songs stripped back: the best example being Robyn Gair’s delivery of ‘Too Many Roads’ while Will Riding adds some gravitas and doom to ‘Sound Of Thunder’. An interesting conceit.