A Welcoming and Honest EP from Pete Loveland
An EP release from Pete Loveland delivers lush truth and honesty as he gives off such detailed lyrics at times that you can paint pictures in your head as the songs unfold. Throughout all of this, you get a thick personality that you end up really attaching yourself to, so by the time you get to the end of the record, you feel like you know Pete and can connect with his sentiments.
The Skipping Stones EP comes through warm and welcoming a lot of the time, and as he tells his stories, you start getting engulfed in the atmosphere that the record delivers.
A lot of this is acoustic-based and has a folk undertone. It's also contemporary and folk rock, with elements of pop and its underbelly that shows face plenty of the time, and again, this wonderful character that speaks his mind throughout this record.
The first track, "Razor Sharp Paintbrush" it was one of my personal favorites and is also an amazing way to introduce the record as it gives you a bit of an idea of what you might expect for the rest of it although, having said that this is the kind of EP that you listen to all the way through.
Yes, listening to one or two tracks will give you an idea of what to expect, but it doesn't give you the full spectrum of what the EP has to offer as a whole.
"Razor Sharp Paintbrush" has a gorgeous song and gives you a bit of that sort of 90s radio pop rock feel, and because of that, it gave me bouts of nostalgia here and there.
This is one of the songs where you can certainly hear a bit of an emotional backbone and also a song that delivers a ton of that lyrical detail that lets you visualize the things that he's singing about half the time.
The guitar work on this record is great, and the progressions are memorable and, again, have a bit of emotional drive behind them, especially when it comes to the vocals as they certainly boast a lot of passion and a certain approach that also lends a bit of a hand to that '90s radio rock style.
I definitely love this combination because, hearing songs like this, you want to get that emotional drive from them, and you want to be able to connect with them, which is something pretty much all of these songs that you do.
These songs are acoustic bass, but they're not stripped down. A lot of the time, there are live drums to go along with those acoustics and more.
It's the sentiment of the songs and the performances that make this record special.
Some of these performances feel like they might have been done live on the floor to an extent with some overdubs later on.
The songs put you there in the moment and feel like you're watching a live performance in a way.
It's not often that you get that kind of aesthetic from the record so when you come across one, you hold on to it.
Different kinds of intensities come and go throughout the release, and you find yourself getting pulled into the atmosphere that the EP gives off to the point where the whole thing is a bit of an escape really.
I definitely feel like this may have been a bit cathartic for Pete to write and release. For whoever's listening, it's very relatable and enticing in a way that makes you feel like some of these songs could have been written as part of the soundtrack to certain chapters of your own life.
This is a beautiful thing, and it's important to have music that makes you think or feel the way that this does.
I would definitely listen to this record with headphones on because it's the best way to really take everything in and see how it affects you.
This certainly had a bit of an effect on me, and when it was over, I had to reacclimate myself back to reality again.
It was like watching a good show or film.
It just takes you into that mindset and into that person's life for a glimpse of time.
Check this out and see what it does for you.
