Words On Music presents A Whisper in a World Too Loud – Almost Charlie’s fifth album of captivating waltzes, brisk indie pop gems, and ornate ballads delivered by Berlin singer / multi-instrumentalist Dirk Homuth and New York City lyricist Charlie Mason.
The record features a dozen new works that showcase a mastery of songwriting: Mason’s lyrical imagery is penned with such matchless wit and detail that it resonates as memorably as Homuth’s elegant melodies. Such cohesion defines the Homuth-Mason transatlantic songwriting team who, to this day, has never once met.
Homuth brilliantly uses the economy of songwriting implemented by giants like The Beatles (“On The Best Day I Can’t Wait to Remember”) and Simon & Garfunkle (“Somewhen Else”) to guide his hand as he pens an undeniably personalized musical signature.
The 3 / 4-metered album opener, “The Carousel Never Stops, ” finds Oded Kaydar’s piano plucks and swells complementing Homuth’s voice in a fatalistic account of the circularity of existence. “Go a Little Easy” is quickly etched onto the list of the band’s most immediate indie pop gems with a soaring chorus, Beach Boys-esque bridge, and an understated trumpet solo.
Almost Charlie records reliably present an array of sonic palettes with which Homuth recounts Mason’s profoundly touching yet clever verse: sprouting from the rumbling, atmospheric rhythms of “Hear the Leaves, ” locked in step with the glockenspiel-punctuated “Things, ” and causally recounted on the record’s sparse, loungy coda “Bricks. ”
Almost Charlie was formed in early summer 2003 when Homuth answered an Internet ad from Mason who was searching for a composer. Over the next 19 years the songwriting duo have written five albums with a strict division of lyricist and composer that brings to mind classic songwriting teams like Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Signposts: The Beatles, Kings of Convenience, I Am Kloot, Elliot Smith, Turin Brakes, Nick Drake.
