From the opening bars, this sounds like a gentle flowing track that allows the listener to imagine sitting on a cooling beach at night in some tropical island as the stars twinkle and the moon shimmers on the gently lapping waves on the white sand shore. Beautiful. However, listen to the lyrics a little more carefully and it is clear that the opening and title track of this 5 track EP is not quite the shallow feel good music that the music let’s you imagine it to be. This song is singer/song writer’s Daniel Wylie’s observation of a drunk girl taking heroin for the first time. So appalled was Daniel at seeing this at the party and how the host could allow this to happen, he has not spoken with the party’s host since.
And so the first track sets out the feel of the EP in it’s entirety. These are dreamy and sand encrusted pop songs and they have an air of the happy-go-lucky but with a twisted dark lyric sung with a floating voice. This makes this EP both enjoyable and interesting. Wylie’s label, NeonTetra, have sent a whole host of their releases to Alternative Nation for review and, like others, this is not a new release and was in fact available from early this year as an iTunes exclusive download release. It is certainly worth the £3.16 asking price.
Keep It To Yourself, the third track on the EP, stands out as a great track on it’s own and the track conjures up images of cowboys on a long lonely hike across deserted the deserted plains of the US. Wylie is a story teller who writes 3 minute tales and puts them to music. He writes about a life that most of us cam empathise with, of putting barriers up when people get close to protect ourselves then in the next breath sings of how he is able to allow some people to become a part of the person he is.
The combination of a sound reminiscent of 60s bands such as The Beach Boys and The Byrds mixed with lyrics that can be at times dark and at other times uplifting is a winning combination. Daniel Wylie is an accomplished writer and this EP is certainly worth listening to. Wylie left Glasgow band, Cosmic Rough Riders in 2002 and listening to this EP, his decision to go solo seems to have been a good choice.
Sadly whilst none of the tracks on this EP are currently on Wylie’s MySpace site, but there are 4 tracks available on the site at
www.MySpace.com/danielwylie and more information about Wylie can be found both on the main site and within the forums of his record label at
www.neontetrarecords.co.uk
