Tyrone Wells’ Remain Album Review

Tyrone Wells has soul.  He’s a tall, lean, bald, white guy with soul.  He’s got so much soul, that he dared release a live, acoustic cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.”  And it’s darn good.

In his new album Remain, Wells takes his soul to the U.K, where a large portion of it was recorded, and at times the registers of his voice morph into Chris Martin’s younger, guitar-playing brother.  Wells, along with the album’s creative team (which includes Matt Scannell of Vertical Horizon, David Archer, formerly of Evanescence, Iain Archer of Snow Patrol and Reindeer Section, Tim Myers, formerly of OneRepublic, and producer Martin Terefe who worked with KT Tunstall and Jason Mraz) came up with some catchy tunes.  I’m sure that laundry list of artist names evoked thoughts, both good and bad, about what this album may sound like, and that’s ok; it did for me too.  Whether you are a lover or a hater of those modern pop-rock acts, those names conjure up some catchy radio songs.  Remain is no exception.

Upon first listen, I already found myself singing along to “All Broken Hearts,” a catchy tune with the chorus ‘hallelujah.’ Wells is the son of a pastor and was raised with strong faith that filters very apparently into his songwriting.

This is the kind of album that you can play while hanging out and making scrambled eggs with your girlfriend; provided you’ve learned how to talk to a girl, and hold her attention long enough for this scenario to arise.  In other words, it’s a specific kind of album for a specific kind of person or situation.  The album is filled with love songs, it can be moody, and at times it ‘sounds British’ with looping drums. Remain is not for everyone, but for those who get what it’s about, be prepared for it to be in heavy rotation.

My picks:  “All Broken Hearts,” “In Between The Lines,” “Together.”

(Footnote:  “Ain’t No Sunshine” is not on the new album, but it IS on iTunes…)