Album review: Tokio Myers – Our Generation
He captivated the hearts of the British TV audience when he triumphed on this year’s edition of Britain’s Got Talent. And now, he hopes to win widespread approval from his peers in the appropriately titled Our Generation.
Tokio Myers, real name Torville Jones, has already proved an inspiration. He fought off stiff competition to win Simon Cowell’s monolith reality contest this year. He also put in a bucket-load of work to see the charity single succesfully put together for the victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster this summer.
He fuses an array of musical influences that have shaped him as an artist, ranging from classical and cinematic to hip-hop, dance and 90s soul to create a unique sound.
His tendencies for pop can be heard in his single – a studio recorded version of his BGT cover of Rudimental and Ed Sheeran’s Bloodstream. There is also a reworking of The Weeknd’s Angel in there.
There is also a dive into the realms of dance with an excellent cover of the late Robert Miles’ Children, while we are in those bluesy depths of a Moby migraine for Mercy. It’s like the bald techno addict has had a row with Rag’n’Bone Man and this is their makeup tune.
“With this album, I’ve really tried to bring classical and contemporary elements together,” Tokio has said. “I’ve been hugely influenced by the 90s dance scene and particularly bands like Faithless and Massive Attack. There was a magic to that era that I wanted to capture and bring up to date for our times.”
For somebody finding his feet this is pretty accomplished. That reworking of Children ups the ante in pace and feeling. It lifts what is essentially a bleak track and adds new fizz to its core with its thumping beats. Dare we say it…it’s better than the original!
This record is snazzy, never falling too far into reality TV star covers territory and allowing Tokio to experiment with his piano playing without going too far off-piste.
Look out for the jazzy jangles of tracks like To Be Loved for the real foot-tappers on the record.
There is some to skip – the bland Polaroid for example. But overall, Tokio has started a potentially fine journey here.
Rating: 7/10
Catch Tokio Myers live when he plays Birmingham’s O2 Institute on April 8, 2018.
