Timothy Robert Graham newly released album Speak, brings together elements of personal relationships and social interactions. The artist himself describes his record as “just as much a reminder to listen, as it is to say what’s on your mind”.

By Martin Frank

Here is an album with eleven tracks, well sung, well written and well produced but it’s missing something. Many of them are sub three minutes and it leaves you feeling cheated, they’re nice little songs but with some at less than a minute and a half you are left wondering why? Just as you start getting into the song it ends, but don’t get me wrong Timothy is talented. The music oozes skill, the songs are individual, fun, entertaining and his voice having been recently tuned shines through impressively but the whole album leaves you a little flat. Also, the songs are middle of the road – neither rock, pop, dance, or anything specific so alongside them being on the short side, the result is that they seem to merge into one another.

Timothy is reminiscent of Mika; multi-skilled, theatrical at times and super-talented but this alone isn’t enough, and he needs his own ‘Grace Kelly’ track to do the same. Scaring the children is good – it’s funky, catchy, a little like a slow Rolling Stones track, without the rock, but at one minute twenty-eight seconds it doesn’t build enough steam to get it where it should go. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is again catchy and a thumping sing-a-long track but seems a verse too short at just over two and a half minutes.

We love music and it is frustrating when much less talented artists are making a fortune because they tick the right boxes. Timothy’s obvious talent is a little lost here; there are superb rock moments in Speak that build fabulously for the short time that it runs, but if it arrived with a climactic end it would take you to another level and be something special. The albums total running time is just over twenty-seven minutes which is a crime. Timothy seems in a rush to get onto the next track rather than selling and enjoying the one he’s performing, and it feels like he’s in a hurry to prove his skill by throwing everything at us as quickly as possible. He’s got what it takes to be a success but not with this album – its good but it could so easily have been great, less is more in most cases but here we want more and more.

Speak is available to stream now.