New album from Stephen Fretwell: Man On The Roof (August ’07)
Manchester artist Stephen Fretwell graced my thankful ears with easily one of my top 5 songs I was introduced to in the last year. The slowburn stunner “Emily” is sublimely sad and slightly bitter, one of those bruised and rueful moments of clarity about someone you love(d). But somehow it sounds so winsome, I can’t get enough. One reviewer thought (and I echo), “Emily was actually a great, bleak pop song and one of the most beautiful ‘fuck you’s’ I’ve ever heard whispered on daytime radio.”
If you didn’t catch it the first time around, this is from the Abbey Road-recorded album Magpie, which was his major-label debut (’04 in the UK, ’06 in the US) and went gold:
Emily – Stephen Fretwell
Fretwell is now poised to release his follow-up album to Magpie this August. Titled Man On The Roof, he’s just posted four new tunes from it on his MySpace, and I really like what I am hearing. The first tune is likely to be the first single off the album.
Scar – Stephen Fretwell
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San Francisco Blues – Stephen Fretwell
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Prolific songwriter that he is, Fretwell also just released an EP in May: Four Letter Words is available here, and you can download a free track (called “What”) from that collection on his website.
Name: Heather Browne
Fantastic to see another Fretwell fan – I discovered him in May 2004 just before he released his debut album over here. ‘New York’ used to be my favourite of his, but as it happens just yesterday I decided ‘Emily’ is. So. Um. Good choice.
Woodland Bear — July 15, 2007 @ 10:14 am