Australian musician, James Pots has a new album, ‘Of God’. If you had to sum up the whole album it would be with the words authentic and raw, and this is probably mainly because it’s acoustic. It sounds like what we hear is a direct recording, almost like it’s live. Although because of this, it doesn’t sound like it has been cleaned up. It would probably benefit from being a bit more polished as the audio isn’t always best mixed, some parts being louder than others to the point where you have to adjust your volume. Perhaps this is part of its charm though.
‘Let Me Go’ starts the album off and it’s a short track that manages to pack in a lot of emotion in a short space of time. This is James Pots’ niche though, as none of the tracks go over the four minute mark but contain enough feeling you could believe the songs are longer than they are.
‘Dead in the Water’ and ‘With Him’ have that same tone and feel. Emotionally charged, slow and quite ballad-like that have a lot of feelings poured into them. There is a real strain to his voice, making it waver in places, which helps highlight that. He’s certainly establishing his sound by keeping everything consistent.
‘Something New’ has a bit more punch to it, the choppy guitar chords muting and cutting off the full sound. It’s very percussive and acts as a drum beat in another completely acoustic track. This song has a more positive energy but still not in an overly bouncy way. Song seven, ‘Bucketloads’ uses that same choppy sound, and the two songs break up the general tone with something with a bit more energy.
Track five, ‘Glow’ immediately slows down again, this one somehow feeling more full even though it is still just an acoustic track, and the instrumentation is actually very subtle. It is a case of less is more, and the focus on the vocals really stands out. ‘And I Will Wait’ continues with this flow and momentum, but when we make it to ‘Can You Come Closer’ the intro has a more feel good and whimsy opening, but still playing into James’ sound.
And then the album finishes on ‘The Pines’. Ending the same way the album has consistently played, more emotion and just tonally accurate. If you need something to wind down to, ‘Of God’ is definitely the album for you. The pinnacle of chill and subdued, James Pots has mastered the slow song.
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