Tom McRae/ Alphabet Of Hurricanes

Tom McRae
Alphabet Of Hurricanes
(Cooking Vinyl)

Many artists will tell you that they’ve lived a nomadic existence; a tortured life on the open road with nothing but their guitar for company, calling home wherever they lay their hat. It’s the musical equivalent of a middle class badge of honour.
The end product, they’ll say, is the album they happen to be promoting at the time – an album which, more often than not, bears no relation to an unsettled existence.
Tom McRae’s Alphabet of Hurricanes is one of the genuine efforts: the product of two years on the road in which he attempted to reconcile his naturally destructive nature with his desire to feel settled.
The success of this album comes not from the back story itself – anyone can say they’ve travelled – but from the emotion contained within the songs that actually makes you believe it: the loneliness, the anger, the desire to feel some sense of belonging – to anything.
When complimented by minimalist arrangements, pieced together using a rag-tag mixture of friends playing instruments purchased on eBay, Alphabet of Hurricanes ceases to be some self-indulgent, soul searching affair designed to appease middle aged housewives, and becomes something of much greater value.