Album Review: The Thomas Oliver Band Baby, I'll Play

Album cover for Baby I'll Play by The Thomas Oliver Band. Photo / Supplied

Stars: 2.5/5
Verdict: Debut from Welly rockers needs more grunt

You might know Wellingtonian Thomas Oliver and his music-making mates from the video to toe-tapping porch song Goin' Home, the one where the band make their instruments out of junk they find in the woods. It's very cool. However, a flash and clever video is all very well, but how does the music stack up? Not too badly, although a little on the earnest side.

That song, which opens the band's debut album, comes across something like a bluesy Ben Harper track, before giving way to a set of songs that are predominantly in the blues-rock jam-band territory.

The band are at their most interesting when they veer into the psychedelic wah wah-meets-plucking distortion of Stevie Ray Vaughan on the muscular blues of the title track and the sprawling Still Insane.

Elsewhere there's the slow-motion country of Take My Word; there are moments that recall the Feelers, with Oliver's voice a mix of raw-throated and mainstream rock a la James Reid; and for all of Sing Me to Sleep's wild and grand ambition, it lulls you into a slumber more than a trippy dream.

So while Baby, I'll Play is a solid and well-played debut record, it has its ineffectual moments.

The thing it could use is some unbridled grit, and a bit more rabble-rousing fun but that will perhaps come with more time on the road playing rock'n'roll and blues. So hit the road Thomas and let loose.

-TimeOut