As a way of whetting the sonic appetites of the discerning pop fan before he releases his debut album in a couple of months, Adam Wedd first gives us Merchant Man, a seven-track EP. And while he blends established genres—pop, rock, and indie— together, the songs he draws from those swirling sonic waters make for a wonderfully fresh experience.
But that is the art of it. To take the things that people are already attuned to, find familiar, and are comfortable with, and do something new with those recognisable sonic threads. And that is what Adam Wedd has always been great at.
“PEDAL to the METAL”, a song that speaks of open roads and adventure, cutting loose, breaking free, living life on your own terms, both through its lyrics and its euphoric sound, kicks things off with a pop-rock bang.
But if that opener sits at one end of a vast sonic spectrum, “Shipwrecks” is a piano-led, violin-infused, spacious ballad that defines the other. And between these broad musical markers, we find contemporary indie-rock groovers such as “Shaped By The Stars,” the growling country-rock of “Duvet Days,” and the skittering dance beats and dexterous rap salvos of “Madman.”
Now, I’m not comparing Adam Wedd to Ed Sheeran in terms of sound or style, but I do get the feeling that it was the now superstar’s ability to broaden his pop-facing, singer-songwriter sound that opened so many doors for him. This is the sound of Adam Wedd embracing a similarly open sonic mindset. And who knows where that may take him…
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