WILLIAMS, TOM - All Change (Sealed) (LP)

Tom Williams, formerly helmsman of Tom Williams & The Boat, wrote his fifth album All Change in practice rooms across Kent, in breaks from teaching guitar and songwriting to primary and secondary school children. Lyrics came to him on the long daily drives from his home in Hastings. And the band? Music tech students, who helped him out on an artist-in-residence programme. Not that you can tell. All Change is an album made on a shoestring that sounds like a big budget classic: a reflection of Williams’ life-long love affair with 1970s American rock showcasing a new refinement to his songwriting, and a more commercial edge – “a celebration of the big chord change and the emotional sucker-punch line,” as he puts it. Think Asbury Park by way of Hastings – an unexpected trump card from someone who’d put rock and roll dreams to rest. All Change is a feast of rock and folk songs drenched in strings, Hammond organ and rich 70s harmonies. It was mixed in by Ian Grimble (The Fall, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Mumford & Sons) – who “brought the album into focus,” says Williams. Additional guitar comes from Niall Davey and Declan Vink, and the lush backing vocals from Iona Corrin-Chard.