One Track Mind

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When Tim Williams releases Careful Love, his third album for Dovecote Records, on October 20th, listeners will reap the rewards of an artist whose career has arced away from more subdued beginnings toward a sound that combines poppiness and grit. The album’s lead track, “I Hit Another Wall,” is a simple, infectious number whose chorus burrows into your consciousness upon first listen. In many respects, the song is an ideal candidate for the “repeat” button–lean, hooky, never frilly, and easy to sing along to.

As a composition, ” I Hit Another Wall” doesn’t boast a high degree of difficulty. There are no layers of instrumentation to sift through (it involves your standard rock band lineup plus a smattering of smartly positioned piano and keys, as well as the simple drum machine beat that carries the song throughout), no deep lyrical concerns, no grandiose artistic statements being proffered. But Williams is all the more successful for this uncomplicated approach: he knows not to get in the way of a good thing. Instead, a pair of guitars lay the foundation for his occasional near-falsettos and, yes, that memorable refrain. There is some nuance here, to be sure, as with the subtle harmonizing the keyboards provide to the vocals or the ponderous tones of the piano-dotted bridge, but Williams knows this is not the main attraction. When you can write a song as fizzy as this, the best thing you can do is let it stand on its own merits.