Reviews

2004 was a long time ago, wasn't it? Back in those days, Oceans 12 was released at the cinema, Man Utd won the FA Cup and Mark Saunders released an EP of three songs.

The release of 'California Rain', 'Say You Will' and 'Ring' met with no little approval from this reviewer who described the songs as "beautifully formed miniature masterpieces".

Saunders had recently moved from London where he'd been busy playing in three bands simultaneously: an indie band, a grunge/metal act and his own band.

Four years later, there is still some distance between Mark Saunders' music and his grunge-y past.

2008 has seen the release of the rather unimaginatively 'Album III' (still, nobody moaned at The Verve or Portishead for going down the same track lately).

Mark's songs revolve around the theme of self discovery.

They concern mistakes past ('Sinister Door' and 'Human Rocket-Girl') as many songs do.

But rather than morosely dwell on the unchangeable, the songs generally reflect a sense of acceptance: "It's the human in us else", Saunders admits during 'Human Rocket-Girl'.

Mark Saunders

Love Songs

Elsewhere, the music takes on a more romantic with a love song so pure and simple it could break your heart.

'Hey Red' contains no gushing strings, no impassioned divas or hyperbolic metaphor. Instead, it just expresses love in the simplest way: "Hey Red, I like your head/should I ask you to marry me?" runs one line.

It's a love song in the same vein as Pink Floyd's 'Bike' or Madness' 'My Girl', and all the more profound for its simplicity and honesty: "I'm not asking nothing fancy/we won't be like Sid and Nancy," Saunders sings in the best line of the song.

You won't find that on a Ronan Keating record.

There is love and soppiness all around on this album. 'Genevieve' is a gentle daydream of a song (albeit with a hint of the Postman Pat theme tune about it), while 'Stuck in the Sunshine' is tinged with sadness: a love that has gone and the memories that this brings of better times.

Bitter and Twisted

Often though, the songs return to the theme of a poignant remembrance for better times and dreams left unfulfilled.

Nowhere is this more evident than in 'Face You Show the World', the album's bitterest of songs which comes to us straight from the bottom of a bottle of bourbon.

It's a cynical song, stripped of any of the cheery optimism found in other parts of the album: "In the cleanest person there's a dirty little secret that the world will never find," Saunders groans in a Dylan-meets-Rod Stewart drawl.

The tune wouldn't be out of place in a Salvation Army hymnal, but the lyrics come from a place of deep despair, a million miles away from any hope of being saved.

Tonight Matthew I'm Going to Be...Everyone

Saunders as a singer is something of a chameleon. Each song is different. A different vocal style, a different texture.

At times he is Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics ('All Your Gifts Are Mine'), at others he is Noel Gallagher ('Sinister Door') or one (or even all) of the Beatles ('Come Around'). And then sometimes he shares a similarity with R.E.M. ('Stuck in the Sunshine').

The change in styles is not enough to be grating - the overall themes do enough to all the songs to sound comfortably placed next to one another.

But it is a little unusual to hear such different sounds coming from one person.

Since 2004, Saunders' creative investment has more than paid off.

Here on Album III, are a selection of nine fine songs about love, loss and hope for the future, and one fantastic song filled with snarly cynicism usually reserved for bars on the wrong side of Manhattan.

With any luck, we'll be hearing more of the same from this master of vocal disguise soon. Let's just hope he gives us a clue it's actually him...

This article is an external contribution and expresses a personal opinion, not necessarily the views of the BBC.
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