SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: CHRIS CLEVERLEY – BROADCAST THE SECRET VERSE

Chris Cleverley
Broadcast The Secret Verse
Independent

The times when singer songwriters would limit themselves to a single acoustic instrument and vocals and lyrics that were only talking about their hurt feelings are still here (well, a little bit), but are definitely on decline.

These days, the new singer songwriter generation favors not only a diversified musical palette, but also lyrically immerses itself into a broader spectrum of social and other issues that surround us, and on a much larger scale than some previous singer songwriter generations before them.

Count Birmingham singer-songwriter Chris Cleverley into this latter category, as his latest album Broadcast the Secret Verse includes all of the elements mentioned above – a varied and a very detailed musical palette and some intricate arrangements, as well as some deep thinking lyrics that cove subjects like pervasive artificial intelligence (“A Prediction Algorithm”), charter cities (“Paradise”), climate/nuclear emergency (“Still Life”), and the mass displacement of people (“The Centre Cannot Hold”). At the same time, these lyrics are neither pretentious nor overbearing.

By combining musical elements that include everything from lo-fi folk to trip hop and deep-thinking lyrics sang in a clear and discernible vocals, Cleverley is able to come up with a truly new times singer-songwriter album.

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