St. Thomas
I'm Coming Home
Racing Junior

There have been great expectations to the second album of St. Thomas after the brilliant first album Mysterious Walks, and this summer's big radio hit Cornerman. St. Thomas, or Thomas Hansen, is one of the young, talented songwriters in the growing Lo-Fi country scene. He is one of the artists on the small record company Racing Junior, which have some of the more interesting new artist in Norway. He was also the singer and front man of Emily Lang.

His musical relatives would be the mighty Neil Young, Gram Parson or newer artist like Will Oldham, Calexico and Smog. This is back to basic with traditional instruments like banjo, acoustic guitar, organ, violin and drums. It sounds charming, jangling and fresh. St. Thomas has got a good ear for the simple, good melody and this new album is a statement of his quality as a songwriter. There's also a certain longing and romanticism of the urban cowboy aesthetics running through this album. Sometimes he's balancing a bit too close to the edge with some of his 'Rai Rai' or 'la la' chorus. The album is switching between the cheerful folky songs and the melancholic ballads thus creating a varied album for rainy autumn days.

Best moments: Take a dance with me, the flamenco based Goodbye Emily Lang (I guess this is a goodbye to his former group), the tender and mellow Stranger out of blue where he's writing poetically about one night stands, and, of course, his highly deserved hit single, Cornerman.

Copyright © 2001 Mariann Skjerdal