It starts off slowly, but Rob Owen's "Barefoot in the Rain" (http://www.myspace.com/robowenmusic) will reward you with your patience. At first, neither the opening title cut and the following track, "Wake Me Up," made too much of an impression on me. Owen's gravelly voice, reminiscent of the Eels and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder at times, wasn't complemented well by the music, which was too plain in the beginning. I couldn't really grasp where this album was going; it seemed to me that Owen was showing more passion in his vocals than in his playing. By the third song, the hauntingly melancholy "In This Home," I was won over, and I never turned back.
It helps, too, that "In This Home" has Owen's finest lyrics on the record. "In This Home" finds the protagonist isolated from the world around him, discovering solace in the comforts of his bedroom space. It's not a pretty nor a happy tune, at least from my interpretation. But it's the first one that Owen knocks out of the park. There is something appealingly dreary about this cut, from its softly strummed acoustic opening to its moody arrangements.
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However, don't expect Owen to stay locked inside the house, wallowing in despair. "Park Bench" delivers some sunshine through the clouds, an uplifting track that picks up the record's tempo. "Take Away" also moves along nicely, paving the way for the much improved and highly consistent second half of the CD.
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