Tom Warren – Tom Warren [EP Review]

It’s interesting to me whenever an artist self-titles their album. It marks a step bold enough, to make the art speak for itself- as if the art piece was a non-logocentric way to describe who they are to their intended audience. In today’s review, we have exactly one of these situations. It is a self-titled EP of four tracks from the artist, Tom Warren. This is his debut EP, which definitely connects the dots for me as to why his album is self-titled. It is his forage into the world of releasing music, and we shall all welcome him.

Tom Warren is an indie singer-songwriter from Cardiff, Wales and his music is influenced by a wide array of artists such as Trophy Eyes, Blink-182, Lil Peep, Phoebe Bridgers as well as Juice Wrld. Even though some of the influences named may seem unconnected to others, I can sense a common theme between these artists- they speak (or sing, to be more accurate) for, through and by their own experiences and thoughts, to culminate it into a body of music that represents them. Similarly, Tom Warren has also adopted this approach in his way of songwriting- by examining his inner world and speaking about what’s in his brain. I’m more than excited to delve into this EP, especially if it is a peek into his world.

The album starts off pretty promising- it spends no time delaying the listener to get into the gist of the album. ‘Supposed to Know‘, the first track of the album, begins with an introductory guitar riff that puts me in the mind of stylistic theme tracks from coming-of-age shows or movies from the late 90s to the early 2000s. It has a pretty average composition, with nothing particularly standing out to me. It is an immensely well-mastered song, though, as I can tell that all the elements of the song have proper mastering and do not conflict at all with the track. I can tell that the song is primarily meant for the artist to put his lyrics out there and tell his story, but I can’t help but think that the structure of the song is frankly quite predictable and not too unique. The guitars go in a circular ascending and descending pattern, with the drummer definitely keeping a good groove on the song. The vocalist’s vocals put me in the mind of Owl City, in the sense that it is quite mellow and slightly melodic in its mellow delivery. It sounds like a revamp of Wonderwall by Oasis, mixed with mid 2000s apologetic rock. The track is definitely competent in its production as well as execution, but nothing truly stands out besides the drums.

In ‘Ephemera’, the musicality switches up a little bit to a number with a higher tempo as well as more concurrent polyphony in the guitars. The chords in this song paint a more dynamic emotional soundscape, going through highs and lows, as well as making a slightly bolder presence throughout compared to the last track. While the vocalist stays true to his mellow style, the vocal delivery in this song definitely has potential in terms of its ‘singability’. I can see people singing the lyrics back to this person if they had a live performance. The anticipatory buildup in the middle of the song definitely gives the song more character and ambition, and gives a little bit of a Coldplay feel. I like how the drumming in this track also is reminiscent of certain hard rock songs, giving it more of an edge. Moreover, the drummer uses more cymbals that definitely give the track an oomph. One good point of the song, is also how the background ad-libs is mastered towards the end of the song. The effects used give it a strange melancholic nostalgia, which is definitely in these days. The entire track does still retain the stylistic-era trope of the last track, which I think will persist throughout the album.

‘Souvenirs In My Head’, the song afterwards, definitely has more of a tender and vulnerable tone to it the moment it begins. The chord structure of this song oddly reminds me of ‘Thinking of You’ by Katy Perry. It does follow the same compositional quirk as the previous song, but with a slightly more dynamic ascending and descending emotional tone as well as vocal delivery. I definitely like how well-mastered the guitars are in this track, the timbre of the acoustic soundscape gives it the typical ‘golden’ tone that I think is necessary in most acoustic songs. The drummer, once again, switches his drumming to fit the theme of the song more, without overpowering the song. I am more inclined to prefer the vocalists’ delivery in this track, as it doesn’t actually sound as mellow or drawn out in this track. The song switches up and turns more exciting towards the bridge, employing the same anticipatory musical elements before it rescinds back to its emotionality in the chorus. The additional guitars give it more emotional depth, and individuality. I’d say, out of all the tracks thus far, this track has the most character and sounds the least generic.

Lastly, ‘Pistol’ is the star track of the whole album to me. It starts off with extremely grungy bass patterns, and erupts into a bout of excitation. From a big-picture perspective, adding this song to the end of the EP is an extremely intelligent decision as it saves the listener from the mellow fatigue of the previous tracks. I think this song has the most cross-platform potential in the album, as it reminds me of a mixture of grunge, punk, as well as ‘new rock’ ala Maneskin. The vocalist’s vocals are presumably more layered in this track, giving his mellow tone more of a presence and more dominance without losing the character of his voice. The guitars and composition of this track is also highly dynamic, as it oscillates quite frequently, and the fast tempo as well as contrast between acoustic and electric guitar gives the song the boost it definitely needs. The chorus definitely has ‘singability’ quality as well, with the vocal delivery surely alluding to a track that could get the crowd going.

All in all, I do find this EP quite interesting as I do not get to chance artists trying to revive these genres in such a manner quite often. The first half of the album is not as significant as the second half of the album to me, as it sounds very generic and drawn out. The remaining two tracks speak out more, even if they are not necessarily compositionally unique. I think this album has the potential to resonate with listeners akin to the genres that the artist are influenced by, and with certain songs, the production as well as intent is good enough to resonate through other genre biases. This is a decent attempt at a debut album, and in the future, I’d love to hear this artist take more compositional and songwriting risks- they do have talent, it just needs to be culminated more.

Score/Good: This is an interesting release, in terms of the choice of genres it intended to revitalise. It unfortunately has aspects that can definitely bore you at the beginning, but it descends into musical excitation towards the end of the EP. It may not be the most outstanding, but I definitely hear a lot of potential and talent waiting to be untapped. A good introduction, if you’re new to this artist!

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