Justin Sandercoe  - Small Town Eyes

For our distortion blasted ears a bit of musical variety doesn’t just ‘spice up’ our lives: it’s practically essential to, A) keep us (slightly) sane and B) keep us from going entirely deaf here at Rock Pulse towers. So it’s in the spirit of variety that we turn our attention to the mellow and rather lovely strains of internet guitar sensation Justin Sandercoe’s debut solo album ‘Small Town Eyes’. For those not yet aware of Sandercoe’s online guitar tuition service we recommend that you Google him, as with 55 million YouTube hits and a reputation as one of the world’s most respected online guitar tutors, his free lessons are worth a look for budding six-stringers; today however we’re concerning ourselves with the thirteen tracks of contemplative folk pop that make up his debut release, and can happily report that, to our ears, it’s rather impressive.

When we say that Sandercoe caters for himself before all others on this album we don’t mean to cast him as exceptionally self absorbed or pretentious; rather, this record doesn’t seem calculated to please all of his vast online following, a brave and honest decision for the soloist to make. There’s plenty of intricate, delicate acoustic guitar work on here but it’s used only to enhance the power of the songs... This is the album of a musician, and not of a teacher. The instrumental tracks ‘From Katie’s Window’ and ‘Broken’ are impressive and emotive but it’s on songs such as ‘Imperfect’ ‘Pity The Rose’ and ‘I Know?’ that Sandercoe steps out as a songwriter, a strong Neil Young influence audible in the former, respectively complete with searching lyrics about the depersonalisation of modern life, the catastrophic toll that humanity’s actions take upon the environment, and universal themes of love, loss and tenderness. Though not to everyone’s taste and perhaps best enjoyed in small doses, ‘Small Town Eyes’ is a deeply personal record that many will appreciate.