The new release from Newton Faulkner, Write It On Your Skin, sees the English hippy continue on a similar path as his debut album from 2007, Hand Built by Robots. This is not necessarily a good thing.
The latest record’s first track,‘Pulling Teeth’, would have been a more appropriate title for Faulkner’s third album.
With three years passing between albums, one would have thought Faulkner may have expanded upon his past work and ventured onto new themes. This sadly isn’t the case. Write It On Your Skin is littered with clichés and romantic nonsense, so much so it’s groan worthy.
‘Brick By Brick’ features the lyrics, “So we’re back to broken hearted/back to where we started,” a line we’ve all seemingly heard hundreds of times before.
There are three songs worth your time. ‘Longshot’ is a nice number about following your dreams and the lyrics work well with the simple melody. ‘Write It On Your Skin’ has a fast spoken word quality to the verse which is quite catchy.
The best song is the last song, ‘Sugar In The Snow’. A cheery and catchy tune that sees the drum and bass work well together, while Faulkner layers guitar fills smoothly in the background.
Unfortunately, the majority of Faulkner’s third studio effort is repetitive and mundane. It’s your standard relationship album with generic lyrics and some truly woeful choruses, particularly ‘Brick By Brick’ and ‘Pick Up Your Broken Heart’.
It’s a shame Faulkner has let his voice go to waste with these songs. If you’re a hopeless romantic, this album is for you.
– Matthew Naqvi
