JOHNNO CASSON
Window Shopping
Johnno
Casson has been around for a while in one guise or another. Formally known as
Snippet (remember them?) he released four EPs. Window Shopping
is his first full-length album under his real moniker.
This time
he’s combined the electronica of
his former self with a newly purchased acoustic guitar. Combining the two he's
achieved a kind of contemporary singer songwriter vibe (Kate Nash springs to
mind) that's seen him described as sitting somewhere between Ray Davies and
Badly Drawn Boy. While there's something of the flâneur about Casson, his ode to his hometown of Colchester,
'Truth', just doesn’t have the innate sense of
melancholy and wit that the former Kink has in spades.
At times
he invokes the spirit of Squeeze’s Tilbrook and Difford to
draft his songs. But again there’s nothing to match their brand
of infuriatingly catchy pop on this outing either. It's all pretty derivative,
featureless stuff. If anything Window
Shopping sounds like an album of Flight Of The Conchords out-takes... but without the jokes. Not that Flight Of The Conchords are
that funny. Casson isn't trying to be funny either, at least I don't think he
is.
Maybe once he’s figured out how to stand
beyond the crowd he'll develop a voice of his own. Until that time he'll remain
just another face in the crowd. Much like the people of Colchester.
John Blaney
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