Ashley Chittock – Ashley Chittock EP
Released: 6th September 2011
Label: 313 Records
Genre: Acoustic
TL;DR: Beautiful. 8/10
Ashley Chittock is an artist who has been in and out of the local music scene for years, but he has returned once again, this time accompanied with Ashley Chittock EP, the first piece of studio material in this man’s career. Chittock mostly plays around the Southend area, having played the same gig as The Rundowns a few months ago.
The EP is full of great acoustic songs with solid riffs, great hooks and impressive lyricism. All of this is topped off with vocals which are nothing but great, and the occasional vocal harmonisations dabbled here and there only make this the biggest treat ever.
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window begins the five-track EP with a very sombre feel. The acoustic guitar really shines here and sounds fantastic too, very well produced. The vocals from Chittock fit in extremely well with the slightly content emotion made from the instrumentation. This track certainly raises the bar for the rest of the EP, and I can safely say the tracks that follow hit it everytime.
Holy Hooks sees a deeper toned vocal direct on top of a simple yet effective acoustic riff, with Chittock sounding like Alex Turner while sounding original too. This is yet another song which displays a very strong talent of writing solid lyrics, so I think it’s fair to say Turner is an influence, especially considering the cover of Suck It And See too. The one complaint I could make however is the solo, it sounds a tad too echo-y and as a result kinda muddles the sound a little bit. But that’s just a minor concern.
Little Bird is the last of original Chittock songs on the EP, and it sounds a combination of Johnny Cash’s impact-making instrumentation and the light heartedness of Buddy Holly. It’s a lovely song to listen to wherever you are; it provides a nice fix of cheeriness to the listener.
The last two tracks are covers, one being the already mentioned Arctic Monkeys track, with the other being Besame Mucho, originally by Dean Martin. They are both very strong covers, with someone already quoted as saying ‘The best version of Besame Mucho since Dean Martin’ and well, you can’t say any better than that. Suck It And See is another great cover, and is another solid display of Chittock’s vocals. It’s a nice way to close off what is a fantastic listen, and I will certainly be listening many times in the future, maybe even go and see him one day?
I know him in real life. Omg. Also my Dad likes it.
ReplyDeleteWho are you, Anon? Reveal yourself!!
ReplyDeleteAlso, it was always my ambition to make music for dads. Thankyou for making me a proud, proud man.