Play 90 second soundbite of 'Incredible' @ 'CD quality'
Liddington write with maturity and know how to lay down a decent melody. Liddington's songwriting reminds me of bands such as Travis, James and Embrace - Liddington as an outfit don't, it's just the songs that are similarly structured, they're easy on the ear, pretty addictive, distinctive and pretty bloody impressive overall. Liddington seem to work extremely well together; they play very much as a unit with everyone aware of their own role but also the importance of the roles of the others - they don't crowd each other or vie for attention. Yes, Liddington know what they're about and I can see them earning loads of Brownie points all over the place.
Liddington comprise Phil Maine (vocals & guitar), Danny Whiting (bass & keys), Paul Cullum (guitar) and Andrew Watt (drums). Instrumentally, Liddington have it pretty much nailed. Vocally, Maine has a really interesting and warm sounding voice and a great way of delivering it. Just occasionally though, he perhaps doesn't commit totally and just lacks a smidge of emotion - but hey, that's really nit-pickin' coz the guy's 'kin good and those minor details would be sorted with a dedicated studio engineer/producer to push him.
Liddington go about the business of writing and performing with well honed professionalism and they're definitely gifted when it comes to musical composition. Being super-critical, their only weakness that I can see here is in the end product - the recording; it could all be just a bit cleaner to really bring out the beauty of the songs and the accomplished performances. Although the levels are generally pretty good there's an overall 'dirtiness' that could be tidied up and/or ironed out with top quality production facilities. Having said that, this excellent EP tells quite a story about Liddington. I very much like what they're doing and look forward to hearing more soon.
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