First impressions can be misleading. You see a guy with a beard, you hear a minimalistic song arrangement and you think troubled singer songwriter or maybe, if there is a cardigan in sight, twee pop. Listening to this new album by Canadian singer songwriter Andrew Vincent for the first time gave that very impression.
However, despite the laidback, lo-fi presentation, there is much to enjoy here. For a start, Mr Vincent takes a decidedly downbeat look at life through his songs, coming across as one of life's victims. That's fine, of course, as most of us turn out to be victims anyway. Balancing this is a wry sense of humour (illustrated best in "Going Out Tonight" with lines like "…spend my days trying to remember all the things I could've done different") and he neatly avoids the trap of self obsession as well which has the effect that his songs leave you feeling uplifted rather than depressed even when he reflects on his failure to progress ("Fooled Again").
Although he might not be the kind of guy that gets the prom queen (for a lasting relationship, of course), it is pretty clear that he's got a heart. I'll raise my glass to that.