Davenport, IA raised, Chicago based Tim Stop is officially on the music scene with the release of his debut album, Songs of Separation. Trying to describe his sound to those who have never heard it is a bit tricky though. Right away one would simply think alt-rock and no more. Tim sounds a bit like Matt Wertz, James Morrison, or even a less bluesy, a bit more poppy John Mayer. But the music is a lot deeper than that and you can really hear it come through on the album with great song composition, catchy lyrics, and spot on production.

The album starts off on a bit of a melancholy note with the first two tracks, “Half a World Away” and “Songs of Seperation.” But by they third track, we start to see a bit of Tim’s upbeat attitude reflected in the syncopated guitars and poppy feel of “A Little Bit Better.” The good feelings continue on through “Rollin'” although if you listen close, it’s more love song than anything else with lyrics like, “This fight just isn’t fair/Cuz when you love me/Nothing else compares.” Truthfully, the whole album seems to be one big emotional love song. Not a bad thing, but it seems that love is the default for most alt-rock singer/songwriters that I’ve heard. In 9th place is the slow paced, tear jerker “Whisper in the Wind”  For an emotional album, this really takes the cake. You really see Tim’s true colors exposed the most on this song, singing of death, love, and loss. Rounding out the album in 10th is the rock guitar-driven ballad “After You.” There is a hidden track at the end of the album, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. You’ll just have to pick up the album to listen to that one.

All in all, it is a good debut album for the singer/songwriter. The backing band is spot on with a solid rhythm section, great guitar riffs, and amazing vocals. My favorite tracks of the album tend to be the more upbeat ones, such as “A Little Bit Better” and Rollin'” as I am an optimistic person and usually tend to listen to more upbeat music. I’m really looking forward to hearing what Tim Stop is going to come up with in the future and I’m even more stoked to see him perform live, if not just to see how the emotion drenched songs transfer into his live sets. The album drops October 18th, and you can pre-order/buy your album at Tim Stop’s website or most other digital music distributors.

 
Download: Tim Stop – “A Little Bit Better”

[wpaudio url=”http://thesightsandsounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/03-A-Little-Bit-Better.mp3″ text=”Tim Stop – A Little Bit Better” dl=”0″]
 
[wpaudio url=”http://thesightsandsounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/04-Rollin.mp3″ text=”Tim Stop – Rollin'” dl=”0″]
 
[wpaudio url=”http://thesightsandsounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/09-Whisper-In-The-Wind.mp3″ text=”Tim Stop – Whisper in the Wind” dl=”0″]
 

Look for Tim to begin touring as well! Here are the tour dates as of today:

9/29 7:00pm Blackhawk Hotel (Junior League Benefit), Davenport, IA
9/30 9:00pm Legends, Notre Dame, IN
10/6 9:00pm Timeout, Janesville, WI
 

24

Add to the story...