This is an incredibly interesting release we have for you today. The second in Julian Taylor’s Anthology collection draws together tracks from his 30+ year career; from one-off new singles to collabs, re-recordings from old albums to even bringing back some stuff from his Staggered Crossing days. We’re big fans of him here at Overtone, but honestly outside of some of his bigger singles and his last release, I’m shockingly not too familiar with much more of his work. I haven’t even had the chance to check out any of his Crosses stuff, though I do think it’s very much up my street, apparently. So, with that being said, I thought this would be the perfect jumping off point for us. Though having plenty of older music, it isn’t strictly a greatest hits album, as there are still new songs on it. And hell, there was no way I wasn’t checking this out, so might as well do a feature on it!
A new song for the album, ‘Hunger’, starts everything out in perfectly chilled-out fashion. From the simple acoustic chords and the melody over the top to Julian’s effortless smooth vocals coming in over the top, it starts out beautiful and folky. Julian is such an incredible storyteller, and that is on full display right from the offset. The chorus is surprisingly catchy for how stripped-back the song is, the harmonies helping making it sound massive and even more beautiful. Lyrically it’s fantastic too, with Julian doing a great job bringing even more weight to Graeme Williamson’s already heavy lyrics. It’s a simple track, but the subtle layers to it make it still pretty grandiose. An amazing way to open the album, and an easy early highlight!
‘Don’t Let ‘Em (Get Inside of your Head)’ channels the same slower pace, but also has a slight bounce and almost attitude to it. And once again, the duel vocals/harmonies are a big high point of the track. Whether it’s the lower ones in the verse or the higher ones in the choruses, it’s all so good! Heck, it even ventures into rock territory a little with the chorus, it feeling almost Seal at times in the best ways! It has a real swaggering energy to it thanks to the infusion of blues into his sound. It’s another awesome track and one that easily makes our playlist!
The rock vibes keep running through 2025 single ‘Dedication’, definitely feeling like the most southern rock track so far. However, it still has plenty of Julian’s usual folk/Americana style through the verses. It’s a massive both pre and chorus, and I can already envision them being played to huge festival crowds over the summer! Plus, the all-female band be recorded this with honestly kick ass! So far Julian is three for three on awesome songs!
Songs like the Jim Cuddy-featuring ‘Tulsa Time’, Black Tape Levy track ‘Emily’, ‘Under Circumstances Like These’ and ‘Grow’ are all more up-tempo, rock-based tracks, and I love them all. Heck, the latter is a straight up rock song, giving off big Police or Lenny Kravitz vibes. Plus, the former is another massive highlight of the release, being so very catchy. All are amazing songs in their own right, though! In fact, all of the Staggered Crossing tracks on here are incredible, and I really hope that in revisiting them for this, we maybe get a return to this sort of sound in some capacity in his future work! Some of it is very Pearl Jam in the best possible ways. ‘A Million Works of Art’ is another late 90s pop-rock style highlight, while ‘Further Again’ is grunge greatness.
Then you have his more folky solo stuff earlier on like ‘Wide Awake’, ‘100 Proof’, ‘Stolen Lands’ and ‘Over the Moon’. Again, all are good songs, definite highlights of his more chilled-out solo career. They’re all beautiful, with the slightly more neo-traditional country based latter track being yet another highlight!
‘The Ridge’ was a track I felt like I wanted to talk about on its own. It’s the perfect blend of just about every other style on this release. It’s pretty up-tempo and blues-based, but also has elements of everything from country to rock to Americana. It feels fairly close to dark folk, almost Amigo the Devil-like. And plus, the lyrics for it are some of my favourite on the release. From them to the instrumentation to Julian’s delivery, it’s all great. Really good stuff, and another favourite new track I’ve discovered!
From ‘Ain’t Life Strange’ to ‘Weigh Down’, we have three songs that I am very familiar with, all being off the awesome 2024 release, Pathways. We reviewed that album when it dropped and loved it, so I don’t want to re-do a similar thing here. I will say that all three tracks are still great, standing the brief test of time well. The title track in particular is still a firm favourite of mine!
Overall: This is an absolutely fantastic collection of songs! Whether it’s his folky solo stuff or more alt-rock early 2000s output, it’s all amazing, and highlights just how incredible of a talent Julian is. At 21 songs in length, it surprisingly went by in a flash too, the changes of pace throughout being awesome; whoever put it together doing a great job. Whether you’re a fan of Julian’s work or not, I’d certainly recommend checking this out, it very much has something for everyone! It’s definitely made me a new fan of Staggered Crossing, I’ll be listening to them a lot more, but his solo work and collaborations are every bit as good. As a way to bridge the gap between his last couple of albums and what’s to come, it’s a really great release, and one I’ll certainly be coming back to again and again!
The Score: 8.5/10