Product Description

'Magpie' is the debut album by British singer-songwriter Stephen Fretwell. Drawing his influences from artists such as Bob Dylan and Nick Drake, the Manchester-based Fretwell has crafted an album that is both rich in sonic texture and lyrically bold in content. Includes the single 'Emily'.

Track Listing

1. Do You Want To Come With?
2. What's That You Say Little Girl
3. Run
4. Bad Bad You, Bad Bad Me
5. Rose
6. Lost Without You
7. Emily
8. Lines
9. Play
10. Brother
11. New York
12. Rain
13. If You Go

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6877 in Music
• Released on: 2004-11-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Running time: 47 minutes

Album Description
Born in Scunthorpe but now living in Manchester, Stephen Fretwell is a 23 year old singer songwriter; though listening to his songs you might expect him to be older. After testing the water with several big name producers, Stephen decided to produce his debut album himself and Magpie was recorded at Abbey Road studios. This debut album from the Salford-based singer/songwriter is very infectious with echoes of Dylan throughout: he writes music that you don't mind having stuck in your head.

Customer Reviews

A tough call...
...but I think I prefer him to Tom Mcrae, and I like Tom McRae a lot. 'Play' is just stunning.

Buy, buy, buy.....
Stephen Fretwell was introduced to be by Radio 2 and I bought his album immediately on the basis of listening to one song once. One of the best CD's in my collection (IMHO). He is only 24/25 now and his songwriting skills are unbelievable. Full of depth, meaning and such a unique take on melodies grabs your attention. A very worthy purchase if you like artists such as Damien Rice. 5 stars.

On second thoughts....
On first listen I admit I only gave this album a 3* rating, and now realise the error of my ways. For what we have here is a beautiful album full of dark, reflective songs, well-written and brilliantly produced. It'd be too easy to write Stephen Fretwell off as a sombre musician, for whilst many of the tracks do reflect a somewhat dark atmosphere to the album, there is little doubt that this album is excellently written. The single 'Emily' is the perfect example of everything thats good about this album, so if you fancy a taster I'd recommend listening to that track. The album is very biographical, featuring many lyrics that the listener can immeditately relate to and because of this I feel Fretwell deserves plenty of credit for drawing the listener in by producing music they can associate with. There is nothing mind-blowing in terms of intensity, but if you want to listen to some seriously good folky music, dark, yet exciting vocals, then 'Magpie' may be just the album you are looking for. It reminds me a little of Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' in terms of the mood it creates, but nevertheless it has the ability to stand up on its own as an excellent array of songwriting