RIC NEALE, who spells his name ric nEale on his releases is a singer songwriter based in Leeds, and this E.P., ‘Someone Else’s Home’ follows his two albums ‘ric nEale hasn’t heard of you either’ and ‘Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time”.
The six tracks on this E.P. are good, solid acoustic folk pop songs, and the first track ‘Dotted Line’ was written for the art project ‘Almost There’ and was inspired by a picture from the artist Joe Simpson. It is an ideal opening track which is a light folk tune perfect for the car stereo and is about the dilemma of returning to a relationship after a split, “In the broken light of day, in the frozen chill of morning, I want the guts to walk away, I wanna listen to the warning”. Suffice to say this does have a happy ending!
The title track ‘Someone Else’s Home’ is more countrified, and is another song of longing, this time in the third person “You’re on your own, until you make your heart someone else’s home”. Again, this is a strong song, with well crafted lyrics by ric (whose disregard for capital letters is catching), and some nice glockenspiel playing by Spencer Bayles.
‘What would be left’ is a slower country waltz style song being sung to a partner who is haunted by the past:- “Trying to get through the long night, but all you can see through the moonlight, are memories of enemies and shame, you’re still shouldering the blame”, the subject matter is slightly darker than the preceding tracks, but as the singer asks “What would be left, if you chased them (your demons) away?” suggesting that things like that are a part of a person’s make up, and without the bad things we would be less whole.
‘Make You Smile’ was written almost three years ago by ric and is a personal song relating to him finding couple’s counselling rather amusing, and it shows, from starting in the first person and moving on to a story of a princess who remained in her tower, and a jester who bottled up his emotions, as ric says “No one else got hurt, but we can't hide forever , you let down your hair, I'll climb to you”. Exactly. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, or as ric so aptly puts it, “I'll try to lighten up the mood, with jokes and smoke and mirrors, but not ‘cause I'm afraid to let you in, I just wanna make you smile, that's all”.
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‘Stop Holding On’ is just ric and guitar, and comes across as a crisp acoustic pop song. Nothing much to say about this one, other than it fits the mood of the E.P. perfectly.
The closing track on the E.P. ‘Pleading’ is a perfect closer, with a full band sound, and again explores relationships, with his partner being more open about her feelings, “ But you're pleading, dividing your heart cause its bleeding . Pleading, you're sending but I'm not receiving”, but ultimately the singer is not as heartless as first thought, “But I pray that you’ll never stop pleading”.
Overall this was a very enjoyable E.P., I liked the fact that although it followed a certain theme that was interwoven throughout, it never appeared boring or samey, as stated earlier, this is available as a download and a very worthwhile addition to anyone’s collection.
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