I’ve said on a couple of occasions it can be very difficult to review a friend’s CD; there’s that line between constructive criticism and honesty and sometimes you have to just hold your hands up and say ‘sorry mate, I’m just not that keen this time’. I’ve always been complimentary towards Rob Lynch, aka Lost On Campus and in the main his first ‘proper’ EP ticks all the right boxes. But there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on which doesn’t do it for me.
‘Take The Tide’ and the opening ‘And Oates Left The Tent’ are genuinely good songs, the latter is very, very pretty. It’s just the four tracks in between don’t quite match up. The vocals tend to either be really strong and distinctive or a little wishy washy and I think Rob sounds best when he sings with conviction, as he does on the last track which builds up beautifully. That’s the thing, it’s plainly obvious he’s a decent singer/songwriter because there are songs here which prove it, but the middle section of this EP just doesn’t quite do it for me.
Rob’s still a talent, and this is still a decent EP, especially at the start and end, but there’s still some work to be done if he’s to reach Get Cape-esque heights.