Cass Lowe

It was at an Amy MacDonald concert where I first encountered the voice of Cass Lowe. After missing the first support artist to enjoy a pizza, I am so glad I didn’t miss this guy’s performance. He impressed the audience with his short set, as well as with his ridiculously underpriced CD. Thus, Cass Lowe – Demos entered my CD collection and is now an iTunes favourite. Costing £1, Lowe declared he was selling them for the price it cost to make them. Admittedly there were just four tracks on the CD. But these were four beautifully crafted pieces of music.

Chino has a haunting feel to it. Soft vocals and piano playing combine to make you shiver. The reassurance in the lyrics is touching. If this song is based on the truth; and he genuinely wants to be someone’s lover again – I really think the narrative should be enough to win the heart of whoever he desires. The repetition of “Don’t cry. Don’t move a muscle... Just say you miss me too” is effective in creating a catchy ending to the song – keeping it prominent in the audience’s minds.

Hold On To This shows two sides to Lowe’s vocals; the softness of his voice is replaced with a harsher sound when the volume creeps up. The use of the first person narrative makes the song feel that little more personal than your average heartfelt plea of a song.

I Wrote You A Song is a little more complex than the title implies. The longest song on the CD, it explores the story of a man with guilt “dripping out of his mouth”. It talks of how guilt can weigh you down, with the chorus and repetition of “I wrote you a song” at the end showing simplicity in contrast to the aforementioned character.

Cut Out My Tongue feels much more upbeat than the other tracks. A faster tempo brings a smile to your face as you consider all the times you’ve foolishly said things before later regretting them. Knowing you can’t take them back; Lowe poses a good solution in the form of cutting out your tongue. Whilst this would ultimately draw an end to the problem, I’d like to counter this advice by deeming it not entirely practical if you ever want use of your vocal cords again. And losing Cass Lowe’s vocals would really be a shame.

Those four songs make up the entirety of the CD. However I’ve additionally acquired A stab in the dark through the wonders of the internet which is similar to the first three album tracks with softer vocals. Although, like Hold On To This as the volume increases as does the power of Lowe’s voice.

I must also mention the numerous songs that Lowe has uploaded via his MySpace; Kiss Me Kate is a beautiful duet and the snippet of Welcome Home is just as lovely as the first time I heard it. In fact, despite it being uploaded months after I saw it performed live I was still able to sing along to the chorus almost perfectly as it had such a great influence on me. This Winter is also worth a mention; the vocals are placed over a simple beat for effect allowing for Lowe’s voice to shine through.

Find out more about the daily goings on of Cass on his twitter.