Royal Turnbridge Wells, Kent, UK. A guy called Tom forms a band with fellow musicians who play the same pubs and slowly starts recording and playing for ever increasing audiences all around the country. Not an exciting or unheard story, were it not for the fact that the music they produce possesses a rare beauty, a subtle brutality, a universal embrace: think of Arcade Fire but also of Leonard Cohen, and occasionally even of a countrified Pavement. It’s Tom Williams & The Boat’s second album, “Teenage Blood” which shows what these young adults are capable of, with songs mostly about growing up and the pains of coping, unrequited love and even murder ballads. Read the rest of this entry »