Let's give Gary a go! (From Mid Devon Star)

Let's give Gary a go!

8:45am Saturday 13th June 2009

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GARY GO: GARY GO (Decca): BY now you will have heard of Gary Go …… Gary who?

He’s actually Gary Baker, a Joe 90 bespectacled Londoner in his 20s who has just released his first, self titled album on Decca.

So, you could have heard him on his debut single ‘Wonderful’ which crept into the top 30 and the follow-up ‘Open Arms’, which opens the album and where Go, sorry Gary, sounds very much Sting-like in the chorus.

But that’s where the sting ends, because the rest of the album has very much a one-man Coldplay feel to it – his voice is very similar to Chris Martin’s and the sound is close to the band’s.

You may have also heard that he is to provide support on the Take That summer tour, so he’s no slouch.

This is a well crafted album, modern but downbeat (remember Coldplay), friendly and indie-pop which is pretty much good album fodder; but its likely to get more plays on radio 2 than 1 and I don’t think will appeal to the younger generation as much as the 20s and above.

Possible future singles include ‘Life Gets In The Way’ (from the first section of six tracks called ‘of youth’), and the melodic ‘Speak’ and ‘Black and White Days’ in section two, entitled ‘of beauty’ (don’t ask me why…..).

There are plenty of sad ballads, plenty of full sound – G-Go can play piano, keys, synth and percussion – and there’s an excellent rock number ‘Refuse to Lose’ which gives us a different sound altogether .

So will he stay or will he go? Its impressive and consistent throughout the 11 tracks, but it might need another album for him to make it really big – and perhaps lose the Buddy Holly specs. It’s a promising start – and look where it got Coldplay.

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