When starting out, many songwriters are burdened with the title and promise of being "the next" Leonard Cohen, or someone of equal musical stature. Not only does this provide a crippling weight on the young shoulders of an up-and-coming musician, it is usually unfounded. These types of predictions cannot be made without care.
In the case of Tom Hickox, however, you can't help but feel that with his songwriting ability, he can only rise to meet the artists he has been compared to. Hickox is a supreme storyteller, both lyrically and musically, which can be heard most clearly in "The Pretty Pride Of Russia," a tale tinged with hope and naïvety as a young girl becomes a prostitute to make her way in the world.
Hickox's ability to create characters within his songs is one of many strengths he has, and the lyrics "one thing's for sure,
I'll get in there in the end, once I've saved enough to pay my friend's kind friend" are both inspiring and heartbreaking. Considering that this comes from his first album, the weight and experience that Hickox produces is one of the reasons that he is already being touted as "the most powerful and original lyrical songwriter England has produced in years."
The instrumentation is perfectly balanced, with neat little touches in orchestration to drag you deeper into the story. As for Hickox's voice, it's distinctive, low and engaging, and with more variety than the likes of Cohen and Waits. This time, the Cohen-mantle-criers might just be on to something.
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