Despite a relatively short career so far, Tom A. Smith shines with his fourth EP to date, ‘Say What You Want’. Comprised of five tracks, Sunderland’s own kicks off proceedings with the stand alone single, ‘Fashion’, a track that’s full of beans and bursting with life.
Quintessentially British from start to finish, a bass heavy, gritty instrumental and equally powerful vocals, ‘Fashion’ is a perfect opener for the EP and justifies Tom’s meteoric rise straight of the bat. The second track, ‘What!’, follows the intensity of the opener in it’s big moments but mellows into a darker sound throughout the verses. Another killer riff, another banger, you can vision this one being played in a sweaty room with elbows flying everywhere. Pure energy, proper music.
Track three, ‘Beautiful Way’, sits pretty in the middle of the EP, putting a pause on the high-octane stuff and showing a different side of Tom A. Smith’s musical talent. Synth-focused instrumental, spacey guitar sounds and deeper lyricism combine with Tom’s more traditional singing voice to create something special. A well-earnt rest from the intensity of the opening tracks, but nothing short of a banger itself.
‘I Don’t Blame You’ follows, bringing the energy back up but not quite engaging full throttle. A suspenseful bassline and a return to spoken word style vocals, the whole song feels like a build-up to something big but when the drop comes, it doesn’t pack the same punch as the earlier songs. By all means enjoyable, just disappointing.
Beautiful acoustic sounds, haunting sound effects and vocals that do not feel remotely close to a performance, everything comes to an eerie close with ‘It’s All Over’, the final track on ‘Say What You Want’. It’s powerful but bleak, casting a shadow over the energy from earlier and departing with darkness. A perfect end to an almost perfect EP.
‘Say What You Want’ is fantastic from start to finish, exploring extreme highs and lows whilst bending genres in a way that doesn’t feel out of place. Minor disappointments, though only due to how high the bar was set from track one.
Tom A. Smith is already someone you should know and will soon be somebody you can’t help but know. A future household name and that’s not a prediction, that’s a spoiler.
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