After the critically acclaimed “Stop What You’re Doing” EP, released last year via streaming platforms, Blackpool-based singer-songwriter Rob Lea returns with an exceptional self-titled full-length album that will unquestionably appeal to anyone looking for cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed music. Heavily promoted with “Happy Accident,” “Not The One,” and “Big Bad Bear,” three marvelous singles that vividly showcase what you might expect from the entire album, this material demonstrates Rob Lea’s experience, knowledge, creativity, talent, and skills. Soundwise, Rob Lea blends many different but complementary music genres to illustrate such rich and luxurious sonic imagery. He combines a singer-songwriter approach with some of the finest elements borrowed from alternative, indie rock, modern, and nineties rock, power pop, indie pop, and many more. Still, don’t be surprised if you stumble upon many more along the way because this skillful artist fully stacked his debut with many impressive sonic maneuvers. He uses all these additional elements as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to elevate this comprehensive collection of ear-appealing songs to an entirely new level while simultaneously remaining loyal to the primary sonic direction. Therefore, these experimentations with many different but complementary music genres resulted in a magnificent debut album that will appeal to even the pickiest listeners and beyond.
As soon as you press play, you’ll hear that Rob Lea is not joking around with his music. Each composition arrives with a perfect structure, adorned with many intricate segments, brilliant ideas, catchy hooks, and superb musicianship. His music resonates with dynamic, energy, melody, and sincerity, proving that longevous music genres like alternative and indie rock still can sound fresh, unique, innovative, versatile, and exciting. The album commences with subtle palm-muted riffs delivered on acoustic guitar while gradually preparing the listener for such a marvelous opener like “Time Of My Life,” an excellent alternative rock song that resonates with both nostalgia and modern sound. This composition has a memorable and engaging chorus where Rob Lea’s exceptional voice shines in the limelight, delivering lyrics with passion and confidence. His impressive vocal range seamlessly balances low, mid, and high notes while emphasizing all the segments and instrumentations. It’s nearly mindblowing how Lea’s voice and all the orchestrations match together harmoniously, offering a listening experience worth repeating over and over again. The artist showcases his versatility with “Big Bad Bear,” a proper hard rock banger where the bold, heavy, powerful riffs serve as a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. The interplay between rhythm and lead guitars makes this track so catchy that you’ll immediately place it on your playlist as one of your favorite songs. You’ll notice how those tight riffs resonate on one side while the other bursts with fascinating leads and themes, adding more complexity and depth to this number. Rob Lea’s soulful vocal performance spices things up, adding a touch of southern rock, soul rock, and rock ‘n’ roll vibes.
It would be such a shame not to mention an intricate rhythm section, which propels this song to new heights. The importance of the rhythm section is probably most notable on tracks like “Not The One,” where expertly assembled, flawlessly assembled, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics decorate profoundly catchy choruses. You’ll hear those almost drum’n’bass percussions lurking right beneath the main rhythmic structure, making “Not The One” so energetic, groovy, and fascinating. Of course, this ear-appealing sonic journey wouldn’t be complete without equally complex, audible, vividly hearable low-end notes, which provide more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while binding all the orchestrations together with drums. There are also layers of wisely implemented synth themes, melodies, and harmonies, also hearable during the particular choruses, a detail that also elevates this song on an entirely new level. Rob Lea continues this exciting sonic voyage with “All Your Crazy,” “High,” “Happy Accident,” Call On Me,” a series of marvelous indie songs that once again showcase all the creativity and versatility of the artist. Each of these tracks carries particular qualities that showcase how much time and ideas Lea spent while writing, composing, arranging, and producing. For example, “All Your Crazy” brings more marvelous guitar works to the table, with jangly, semi-distorted, profoundly detailed chord progressions during the verses and more straightforward, heavily distorted riffs during the choruses. “High” continuously levitates between southern, bluesy rock guitar works and more rock-solid electronic rhythmic patterns. “Happy Accident” and “Call On Me” bring more contemporary pop and indie pop-oriented structures where piano, string instruments, and delicate beats reign supreme. Like the remainder of the material, Rob Lea invested heart and soul in this composition, proving that he left no stone unturned while working on them.
Rob Lea brings back alternative rock sound with “Freak,” an excellent song where the brass section meets contemporary sound. Each instrument has its place and purpose. For example, the robust, heavy, powerful, almost industrial beats strike hard, dictating groove and pace while the vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines deliver a perfect backdrop for delicate synth sequences, catchy riffs, and Lea’s impressive vocal maneuvers. “My Girl” continues in a more traditional alternative and hard rock style, where intricate guitar works support Rob Lea’s outstanding vocal acrobatics even more. The way he seamlessly glides through all vocal registers while guitars fire all those riffs goes beyond comprehension so many times throughout the entire track. “Flipside” is another excellent composition where the artist decided for a more calm, soothing, relaxing, but intricate instrumentation. Each strum over the strings, slap and pop on bass, and punch on snare arrive with such precision and finesse, defining a new meaning to the words such as groove and dynamics. This marvelous sonic journey ends with “Everybody Needs Somebody,” a beautiful ballad that leaves the listener with a desire to repeat this epic self-titled debut all over again. Rob Lea is an exceptional singer-songwriter, one of those musicians capable of delivering fascinating performance in any music genre or style you could possibly think of at the moment. His brilliant ideas and impressive musicianship shine through every vocal, sonic, and rhythmic performance as he delivers the best debut alternative/indie rock album of the year. You should immediately place this debut on your radar, as Rob Lea deserves your utmost attention. The album is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!
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