Review of Homeworking by Ross Muir, FabricationsHQ

Thanks to Ross Muir for reviewing Homeworking.}

Of British singer-songwriter Robert Lane and his 2018 album Only a Flight Away, FabricationsHQ said:
"When you listen to, and appreciate, the quality of Lane’s third offering you wonder how and why he’s not a bigger proposition in the great musical scheme of singer-songwriter things."

That still stands (although extensive support gigs, headline touring in the UK and tours in Germany and other parts of Europe point to an artist who’s doing OK, thank you), but you also have to consider music is but one string to Robert Lane's bow, sorry, guitar.

The multi-disciplined Lane is also a theatre and film actor, founding member of comedy improvisation group Improv Wolves and host of The Robert Lane Creative Careers Podcast.
Those acting and comedic skills can be seen in Sam and Dan Get Lost, a partly improvised comedy drama that Lane also wrote the music for (the film won Best Midlands Feature Film at the 2021 Midlands Movies Awards).

He's also found time to move and get work done in his house ("from wreck to home" as Lane describes it), including a "creative room" where most of the new solo album, fittingly called Homeworking, was recorded. (One of the many two-years-in-the-making-through-lockdowns-and-lack-of-gigs albums that surfaced in 2022).

While this fourth offering from Robert Lane (following two previous solo albums and an extended EP) is not as immediately accessible as Only a Flight Away, it’s sits upon a wider singer-songwriter canvas and benefits from multiple plays; there’s also a discernible, quirky charm threaded through many of the twelve tracks, along with the more reflective, introspective and soul-baring pieces that the best singer-songwriter albums should not be without.

Opener 'Somewhere in the Dark' has a mellotron (or mellotron effect) sharing space with guitars, bass and drums, giving it a 60s psychedelic charm, while the quirkier nature of the album can be heard on following number 'Pass The Day,' which has an early 70s/ post-Beatles McCartney vibe.

Indeed there’s a light and airy 70s pop sensibility about much of this album – to the degree that you wouldn’t be surprised to have heard the likes of the aforementioned Macca, Ray Davies, Gilbert O’Sullivan or a softer sounding Pilot delivering some of these songs back in the more intelligent and cerebral pop day.

The more plaintive or downtempo side of Robert Lane can be heard on songs such as 'So Many Songs,' the acoustic based melancholy of 'Sick Of Me' and the singer-songwriter blues of 'Wait So Long,' while interlude contrast is supplied by short & dreamy instrumental piece 'Clean Echoes.'

The acoustically delicate title track isn’t, as one might expect, a lyrical diary of the house moves and alterations but a comforting love song; a reflection on being thankful for what we have "in the here and now" and being with the one you love ("all I am, all that I am for, is to try and love you a little more… the life I build along with you").

The album closes out on another acoustic number, the lyrically humorous 'Christmas 2020 This Year is Absurd,' which it certainly was for many a family restricted and/ or house-bound by lockdown ("Santa is on furlough and the elves are all working from home").

Robert Lane wrote and performed every song other than alt-folk/ light-rock number 'Listen In,' co-written with Matthew Pinfield, who features on guitar, drums and backing vocals (Pinfield also features on impressive ballad 'A Lover or a Friend').
It's also an album that helps define the musical and emotional character of Rober Lane – if only all homeworking was this productive and positive.

Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ

Purchase CD or download Homeworking from: https://robertlane.bandcamp.com/album/homeworking
Merch and previous releases: https://www.robertlanemusic.co.uk/shop

Robert LaneJanuary 3, 2023