Tod Hughes - Time Slow Down (Self-Released)

Calgary, Alberta’s Tod Hughes is a singer/songwriter whose warm and rustic songs go down like a wholesome slice of apple pie. Influenced by the likes of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen; Hughes’s new album Time Slow Down is a follow up to his debut EP. Changing Gears and follows much in the same direction but with a fuller and more realized production. Perhaps a concept album in the loosest sense of the term, all of the songs, for the most part, deal with the larger theme of hope, whether approached from a perspective of naive innocence or weathered experience.

Some songs like “Drinking Coffee In a Hipster Place” are fun and gleefully playful with a childlike spirit akin to Jonathan Richman, whereas others such as “Darkness that Cries” are more carefully introspective and with a spirit measurably toned down. Yet, for the most part, a celebratory love of music pervades the proceedings, aided in part by a group of local musicians clearly as invigorated by the project as Hughes is. Time Slow Down, released May 8th, is a record with artistic and thematically diverse depths that only reveal themselves further upon repeated listens, and it is also a record that will never fail to reward the listener or put a smile on their face.