Album Review: Tim Hart - Milling The Wind

The debut solo record from Boy & Bear stick man Tim Hart isn't too far removed from the style of his five-time ARIA award winning band; it feels indeed like a pared-back version from the opening track, Architects, as gentle finger-picking and strings support his talk-sing troubadour voice with minimal percussion. Before long though, the double-tracked vocal and slightly awkward phrasing generally favouring cleverness over flow dominates. So Come The Rain, ominous with dark piano and ringing soundscape, turns ordinary as words are chosen for rhyming sake: “The morning will come/So with it the sun/Until again it is night/We will work and fight”.

And banjo is a tough sell in 2012. Hart is a proficient player who leans towards fast-paced country on the harmony-filled Cover Of Your Code. White Man/Our Share Of Deceiving calls on the backing vocals of Boy & Bear frontman Dave Hosking, and though the vocal melody twists beautifully in parts, again there seems to be something not quite right with its conclusion. Lead single, A Number Of Us, however, is constructed well, and with Hart's persuasive vocal and sparse keys and guitar accompaniment there's an interesting warmth reminiscent of Paul Kelly, or British singer/songwriter David Ford. Elsewhere, he makes no bones about the influence of the likes of Simon & Garfunkel and Fionn Regan.

There is no doubt that Tim Hart is a talented, thoughtful and honest musician, though Milling The Wind lacks stylistic dynamic, and the notion that several key songs could have been handballed to the Boy & Bear machine and worked into full-bodied pop-folk compositions is difficult to shake.