If you are not familiar with Adem, (pronounced more like autumn than the fateful apple eater) you may know him from his other projects. He is a member of the band Fridge and is also an occasional back up musician for Badly Drawn Boy tours.
Adem's solo effort, Homesongs, is a lovely piece of work centered on the universal topic of longing for home (if the title didn't give it away). From its start, with lonely guitar and hammered dulcimer, the album's elegant simplicity is captivating. Adem does quirky, heartfelt folk right.
Lyrically, Adem never crosses the hazy line between honesty and cheesy. He conjures a feeling of longing in the listener, and dodges the hyper-self analysis that is painfully prevalent in indie/acoustic music. (If you need an example just pop in a Dashboard Confessional CD and immerse yourself in Carrabba's blog set to music.) Anyway, there are few weak points in the album and certainly none worth mentioning.
This album has moments of rootsy Americana vibe. It is hard to believe at times that Adem is British. He is certainly my favorite artist out of the UK currently and breaks the mold of the British making "Brit-pop."
Other coverage for this album
Opus 2004Reviewed by Jason MoreheadDespite all of the critical acclaim heaped on the band, I've never really been all that enamored with Fridge's music. There are certainly aspects of it that I find inspired, but I also find much of it rather tepid and uninteresting. Not bad, by any means, just uninteresting. However, I've had no such problem with Fridge-related side projects. First, it was Kieran Hebden's Four Tet. Last year's…Similar sounding releases
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