Passenger – Wicked Man's Rest (2009)

By Ben Vernel

When I began the research for this review, I came across a lot of fairly daunting words.

Words like 'cinematic', 'dark', and 'deep'.

It sounded like I might actually have to care about this album in order to review it. It sounded like it might take some effort to actually get through an initial listen, so, in this muggy 37 degree heat, I approached the album with some trepidation.

I expected this to be either divisive and dull or light and fluffy.

The first track (Wicked Man's Rest) is a revelation.

It's a little bit light, but it totally blew my expectations away. It was incredibly catchy! It's a pretty pop song, composed by a couple of master musicians.

And the rest of the album ain't too bad either.

Passenger consists of two main songwriters: Mike Rosenberg and Andrew Phillips.

They are also the band's only two real members, with most of the instruments on "Wicked Man's Rest" played by session musicians or people they picked up along the way.

The bio on their website calls them a five-piece, but that's after having spent paragraphs and paragraphs focusing only on Mike and Andrew.

They're a couple of English boys, but their music has more in common with Scots Belle & Sebastian and Americans The Shins than any Poms that I know.

There are eleven tracks on this album, and each one is excellent.

The style is a mix of pop and folk and acoustic and rock and roll. There are echoes of Canadian band Stars in songs like Walk In The Rain, mixing dark lyrics and tones with beautiful upbeat music.

However, Passenger's style is all their own. This is one of the most impressive debut albums I've ever heard, especially considering that Phillips produced it himself.

I suppose that I'd categorise this as indie-pop (a notoriously vague genre).

The Passenger lads draw on a breadth of inspiration and filter it through their own unique styles of writing and playing, coming up with a fantastically interesting and catchy debut album.

RATING: 4 out of 5