When I contacted The Skinny's music editor last summer, he agreed to let me to cover some new releases with such haste that he couldn't possibly have read any samples of my work beforehand. He asked for a list of records that I'd recently bought and sent me some stylistically similar promos. Least exciting of them all was the debut album by Mike Nisbet which was already out by the time I received it. The review was never published to my knowledge, and sank without a trace just like Vagrant itself. Here it is. It's nothing too interesting, though I'd have been proud to have slipped a mention of Fred Neil into the paper.
Mike Nisbet 'Vagrant'
***
Recording his debut album under the auspices of Marcus Mackay, Mike Nisbet appears primed for a commercial breakthrough to rival those of the producer's previous clients Snow Patrol and Frightened Rabbit.
Funded by Creative Scotland, Vagrant is a largely low key affair, the artist striving to present his songs to the listener in as direct a fashion as possible. It can't be said that Nisbet is a singer/songwriter endowed with a particularly unique world view or approach to composition. Indeed, 'Free Man''s persistent, nagging chorus is particularly uninspired, while the monosyllabic rhymes of 'El Frida' suggest a lyricist working on autopilot. Nisbet's strength instead lies in his performances, his shimmering guitar work and robust vocals exuding an authority rare in someone of his relatively young age. When combined, these assets render the self-aggrandizing 'Indestructible' charming and elevate prime material such as 'Not Long' and 'Rolling Thunder' to levels of breezy intensity that call to mind the great Fred Neil.
Lewis Porteous
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