James Henry – Pluck CD

Search for some great music can be sometimes challenging, but luckily it’s not a tiresome quest all the time. Sometimes you have to give your best efforts so you could enjoy good music. Luckily, this time the journey wasn’t exhausting and time-consuming like it can be. Here’s another one-of-a-kind artist that unquestionably deserves your utmost attention. The sound of James Henry resonates in a way you can’t hear on the radio, podcasts, or any other media every day, but his style was quite popular from the mid-eighties to mid-nineties. This English solo artist comes from London, and he roams the scene for a couple of decades. Since his inception, James Henry released two full-length albums, such as Sweetener and Overspill, but also published several singles like The Sun Is Cracking The Flags, Don’t Let It Happen, and A Girl Like You (Adrian Hall Remix). Still, it seems that none of these recordings beat his most advanced full-length, released on June 15th.

Pluck is his first full-length material in ten years, consisting of engaging power-pop compositions. Perhaps it took ten years in the making, but James Henry spent his time wisely, songwriting, composing, recording, producing, so this material could shine bright on the spotlight today. His style stands out on a contemporary music scene, mainly because he explores several complimentary genres that were popular a couple of decades ago. James Henry reinvents the beauty of power pop sound but also involves many other genres along the way. Besides the dominant presence of power pop, you may stumble upon new wave, indie, indie rock, indie pop, alternative rock, alternative pop, hard rock, and classic pop. All these elements are nearly the same, with only variations making the distinction between them, but you can even notice how each of these subgenres of pop-rock makes quite a difference within particular numbers.

His music vividly resembles something that renowned groups like Beach Boys, Beatles, The Smiths, R.E.M., Descendents, and many other similar names in the game would eventually record throughout their careers. James Henry pays attention to even the tiniest details in his compositions. The guitars are offering echoic chord progressions, palm-muted power chords, arpeggios, melodies, harmonies, and each one of these elements plays a significant role in shaping his sound. This creative artist even thought about the low-end instrument, so you can hear each bassline he performed throughout the entire album. The exceptional drumming performance contributes to the dynamics of this material but also decorates these numbers when necessary. You’ll instantaneously fall in love with this album and crave more after the first listening. I am positively sure this will be your go-to album whenever you need some flawlessly performed power pop songs. Pluck comes on a compact disc, but you can also stream/purchase the entire album on Bandcamp. Don’t miss this one out.