David James Herbert
Turn Up Your Silence

Edinburgh-born, Cambridge-based singer/songwriter David James Herbert possesses a voice to which the adjectives ‘emotive’, ‘gravelly’, ‘hoarse’ or ‘emotive’ can be applied with conviction.

A first listen to Turn Up Your Silence leaves one thinking Herbert’s voice is the best thing on this CD. It lends an edge to what would otherwise be a string of radio friendly songs spanning those trusted themes of love, loss and longing.

However, repeated listening reveals hidden depths to Turn Up Your Silence, as demonstrated by the punchdrunk blues of ’Faith In Me’ and the driving ’People Like Me’, a steroid enhanced stadium filler if ever there was one.

Perhaps the stand out track is ’Iccarus’, a brooding, mini-epic crackling with electronic and emotional tension; Herbert sounds as world weary as Axis carrying the globe on his shoulders. It also, inexplicably, frightens the shit out of this correspondent.

Whether it will do the same for you remains to be seen. One thing is certain: David James Herbert is a talented singer/songwriter with a real voice, one that is at its best when things get really deep, down and dirty.