Thomas Newton’s debut album Eye of Newt, refuses to be categorised in a genre, blurring the lines of indie-rock and electric-folk tones.
Saturated with intricate textures and stories, artist Thomas Newton delivers their debut album Eye of Newt, opening listeners up to a soundscape of deep vocals and multi-grained melodies.
The album, set for release on May 19, is an abstract, out-of-the-box, 7-track project poured by Tom Healey under The Man Who Fell To Earth alias, Thomas Newton, with his passionate angst for storytelling.
Swirled in hard-hitting lyrics, the blend of genres in Eye of Newt is simply infatuating. The album is immediately ignited with the harmonic sunrise melody Hate Standing By (intro), grounded by a deep voice-over, assuring listeners to “please stand-by” through a New Zealand lockdown.
Shattering through the icy water is Clovers in the Ground, a grungy guitar tune similar to the likings of Rage Against the Machine, and completely jarring in comparison to the intro. The storm is then instantly calmed with the soft indie-folk tune; Please No.
With oozing vocals similar to those of José González and whistles that melt in their goldenness, it is clear that Newton is not afraid to blur the lines of genres to paint a colour-bursting work of art.
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Newton is in no shortage of experience in the music industry, having sung for Debbie Fear and played gigs alongside Mako Road and Dolphin Friendly.
Perhaps his multi-faceted divergence with artists have each filled a piece of Newton’s intricately imaginative style, moving from a cinematic, Spanish acoustic guitar tunes in Little Thing to the climatic burst of the album Speculation’s No Therapist; where Newton echoes George Orwell and David Bowie’s speculative thoughts; “words from Bowie himself/he sits high on my shelf /I wonder if he found peace/cause I sure can’t find the meaning/of these things they must be dreams/what the fuck do they mean” he questions.
The sunset tracks of Eye of Newt are intricately strung dreamy melodies, bursting with rawness and honesty. Freak Don’t Pass orchestrates a circus psychedelic, searching for sanity whilst Happy This Way shines the light on Newton’s irrefutably moving and emotionally charged vocals.
Eye of Newt is a stunningly gorgeous and infatuating album, not restricted by the constrains of a genre. The album is set for release May 19, check it out below:
