Hope In Transition

Hope In Transition marks Brendan James’ third studio album, a singer/songwriter album that is rich with a big sound and contains just enough pop sensibility to keep the artistic side from distancing the album from newcomers to the genre. From the harmonious opening track, None of You Are, to the frenzied closer, World On The Streets, Hope In Transition is a busy album that feels well thought out and sincerely delivered.

Words like beautiful and professional come to mind when I think about my experience with this album. I found a lot of it very easy to love. Sometimes music can sound like it was molded around the lyrical or vice versa but this particular album feels like everything has its place and neither elements of the process take the lead. I really like how each song feels like a solid experience. There is a bit of influence in there but buried beneath James’ creativity when putting together his songs.

While I did enjoy the album I did feel like there were one or two songs in the mix that felt a bit repetitious in the lyrical department. A chorus or two hanging on when it felt like it should have ended a bit sooner, or maybe a just a key phrase repeated just enough throughout the song that it felt a bit redundant.

Despite my little qualms I can’t really find too much fault with Hope In Transition. James explores his music with love employing a diverse mix of sounds from synths to xylophone and enough word play and great execution on vocals that the album never feels boring or as if there’s one song that I just can’t listen to more then once. Even at it’s worst this is probably James’ best work to date. Well worth checking out.