Product Description

2007 release, the fourth from this Mercury Prize-nominated British singer/songwriter whose sensitive style has drawn comparisons to Nick Drake, David Gray and Colplay (amongst others). With King Of Cards, McRae continues down the same emotional path, but with a rich, undeniable warmth in the production that may help introduce him to a wider audience. 11 tracks including 'Set The Story Straight' and 'Bright Lights'.

Track Listing

1. Set The Story Straight
2. Bright Lights
3. Got A Suitcase Got Regrets
4. Keep Your Picture Clear
5. Houdini And The Girl
6. Sound Of The City
7. On And On
8. Deliver Me
9. One Mississippi
10. Ballad Of Amelia Earhart
11. Lord How Long

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28731 in Music
• Released on: 2007-05-14
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

So very very bland
I'll be honest, I only listened to it twice. And maybe it's because I'm such a fan of the other 3 albums that I am so disappointed by this work, but to me it seemed middle of the road and deliberately radio-friendly, completely devoid of any consistent musical or lyrical interest. The ability is still there as one might expect, in every song there is a moment or two that engages me, a flash of brilliance if you like, but then it always seems to be followed by something hollow and predictable that blunts the edge. I think Tom is a funny, intelligent and talented man but he is capable of so much more than this, there are a million singer-songwriters that could have come up with this album.

Tom's back on form
I loved Tom McRae's debut album, absolutely loved it, but his follow-ups were, for me, a mixed batch: "Just Like Blood" was dreary and tuneless, while "All Maps Welcome" had some good moments. I approached this, his fourth, warily, and have been more than pleasantly surprised. McRae seems to have broadened his musical palette considerably, and it does him the world of good. A dash of Springsteen on "Sound of the City", even a glimpse of Peter Gabriel on "Keep Your Picture Clear", and it makes for a fantastic, uplifting listen, an album of heart and soul with a real intelligence behind it. I can't praise this album enough -- it's definitely one of my favourites for the year.

pretty weak fourth album
Tom Mcrae is a singer with a vocal range to match that of Thom Yorke, his musical talents however will never match Radioheads genre bursting abilities. On this album both his voice and the music are pretty bland, few of the tracks match the exhilaration or bleak angst that his previous cd's had - instead they've been replaced by tunes that sound like 80's pop guitar group Deacon Blue or Bruce Springsteen on a bad day. It seems like he's tried to be a bit more commercial with this release and by doing so has fallen into the trap of sounding just like everyone else, and thats fine if you like mainstream mediocrity (this is a five star album for anyone who buys stuff from the top 40...)but not so good (for me at least)if you want to hear Tom's voice swooping around doing something that little bit different. King of Cards isn't a bad album, its just not growing on me like his previous releases - in fact the more I listen to it the more I wonder wether his best tunes have come and gone, a fifth album may be watered down too far for my tastes. This one comes across as fairly dull in comparison to any of his 3 other cd's though there are a couple of worthy tracks on it ('on and on' and 'deliver me' are more like vintage Mcrae), the more upbeat tracks are a tad simplistic for my liking.