American English

American English is an album that, as Tor suggests, has plenty of ebb and flow. There s bold and grandiose (Surrender), there s pop with a range of colour (Carter & Cash, Always), and there s hushed and beautiful (Baby Blue). Schizophrenic? Not so much, Tor has managed to commit to that sense of vastness, but kept a sonic thread throughout that keeps it from being a mish-mash of ideas. It goes for the jugular, grapples with it, and ultimately wins. Like many great albums do, the album closes on a beauty, and Tor s current favourite called Stampede. It s the book-end. I wanted Stampede to end on a what the hell happened there?! moment. It s expansive. I wanted it to sound like Bruce Springsteen covering Purple Rain (which he recently did, weirdly enough). I can hear it on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury as the weekend closes. It s a song I m hugely proud of. Ambitious, then, but not misplaced. The ongoing glut of actually very good singer-songwriters will never become a fallow stable, but Tor has leap-frogged that pen and positioned himself comfortably on the outside, looking above and beyond its obvious limitations. His music has soul, and his performance has a range, depth and scale. There s a key moment in prior single Midnight when, with the backing vocals rising to a tumult behind him, Tor sings Calling out, calling out for something true. The most thrilling thing about Tor Miller with the advantage of time is that he might well have found it.