Playlouder - Content: Ahmond - A Boy You Once Knew

Content: Ahmond - A Boy You Once Knew

Brooklyn-based Ahmond’s debut album, ‘A Boy You Once Knew’, is one of the odder packages that’s landed on my desk this year. A cardboard sleeve depicting what looks like the mix tape of a US MC who’s obsessed with mysticism, with a title sounding decidedly emo, and… erm a small plastic rhino and a slide whistle. Even the press release is pretty cool – being presented in comic book format.

The thing is, I’m so used to these little gimmicks, (I have several times regretted the application of stickers or fake tattoos after hearing the CD), that I’m no longer impressed by covers, just books: and I rarely bother persevering after the first chapter if it stinks.

This relatively short debut, though, chooses its first steps well: the eponymous ‘A Boy You Once Knew’ showcases Ahmond’s lush guitar playing and gift for a good melody in what is a sentimental but non-too-indulgent signature song. While by no means his best work, it’s a great opener.

The real stand-outs here for me are the pensive tranquillity of ‘Thundershoes’ and the magnificent ‘Go To Africa’, which boasts a cornucopia of influences and translates them to the purest and most endearing expression of emotion. If you don’t suddenly find yourself up and dancing, then you obviously ain’t got your thundershoes on.

Comparisons with Paul Simon are inevitable here as ‘Graceland’ (bizarrely) seems to have the monopoly on African instrumentation in modern rock music, but Ahmond’s no Vampire Weekend – the subtlety of the blend here is worthy of a much closer listen. There is nothing disposable here.

Ahmond’s voice is pretty difficult to describe; in the main it’s pretty low, melodic and soulful, but there’s a spark of the untamed passion of youth that’s sometimes reminiscent of early Brett Anderson, and at its maturer moments – particularly in conjunction with the electric guitar on ‘Those Damn Things’ – is evocative of Alejandro Escovedo. What’s more, the backing vocals on ‘The Forgotten Realm’ sound eerily similar to Kate Bush – and that’s no bad thing.

Perhaps the most striking thing about ‘A Boy you Once Knew’ is how Ahmond manages to take such disparate influences, marry them with his quasi-mystical, professedly folkloric influences and yet produce an album that’s pretty easy listening.

At first this can be a weakness: after barely half an hour has passed, the nine tracks could quite easily slip by. But repeated listens ingrain this music, and it reaches parts you never thought it could, parts that most music just doesn’t manage to touch.

A talent well worth looking out for in future, to be sure – but why wait? Start right here with ‘A Boy You Once Knew’: a definite highlight of the latter part of 2008, and currently remaining stubbornly at the top of my playlist.