4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent debut, September 5, 2007
This review is from: Only Trying to Help (Audio CD)
A multi-talented San Diego indie vet, Ferguson nails a bunch of power ballads here, with top notch melodies. He has one of those middle of the road voices, not very powerful and not particularly noteworthy, but has a good sense of the type of music he can embed the vocals into, the result being a CD which breaks no new ground but provides many moments of audio pleasure; in other words, lots of hooks. Aside from his skills in playing (most of what's here), singing and production, he has a spark in his songwriting you can't learn or develop, it's genetic.
Not everything works, like many (relatively) young artists he makes the mistake of breaking up the momentum of a song by changing tempos and directions, "X's" being an good example. There is one passage in that song that kills, and should have been built on, but instead it turns out to be one of three or four different themes he tries to cram into the song. On the other hand, songs like "Imposter" and "Sea" are seamless. And check out the best passages on "Better Off" and "Watch", the kind of moments that make you want to cheer. If he could sit back and let his ear find what really hits the mark he could be one heck of a songwriter, rather than a spot hitter. I'd love to send him back to the studio for a re-write on this, to expand the great stuff.
Very much worth having, and an artist to support for the future. Three or four CD's out, a talent like this might really produce something for the ages.
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