Our take on... Gavin James: Only Ticket Home

After the success of his debut record “Bitter Pill” and the massive single off the back of that album “Nervous”, Dublin native Gavin James returns with a new record that, musically at least, sounds like it was inspired by his touring stints with Ed Sheeran and Kodaline.

It seems that James is aiming to fill some bigger venues with this sound, as the songs and arrangements are finely tuned to suit massive crowds. Lyrically, pretty much every song on the album is related to some form of heartbreak that either Gavin has recently gone through or he’s drawing on past experiences. While the lyrics are pretty memorably and will be well stuck in to your head after a few listens, they veer slightly on the clichéd side and you’ll probably be able to finish the next line before it’s even sung.

In his defence, these shortcomings in his lyrics are compensated by the fact that he has a unique voice that is crisp and powerful, and at times he uses falsetto to really good effect but he doesn’t overdo it. As with the Kodaline album from a few weeks ago, it’s great to hear Irish artists up their game in terms of the sound quality of their output but maybe it would be nice, again as with Kodaline, if James were to strip his sound back and let his unique voice shine without all the bells and whistles of the best the recording studio has to offer.

The live translations of the songs will be interesting to hear, and once you know all the words to this latest record, you can catch Gavin James live in Killarney on the 28th of December and the Royal Theatre in Castlebar on the 29th. This is will be followed in the new year with three dates in the Olympia from the 17th-19th of April.

These are the thoughtful and experienced words of our man Kevin Dillon, @kevinwritestuff 

The Only Ticket Home is available at all Golden Discs stores nationwide and on CD and vinyl at goldendiscs.ie