Lighting Matches by Tom Grennan
Lighting Matches is the debut studio album by British singer-songwriter Tom Grennan, released on 6 July 2018 through Insanity Records. The album spawned five singles, and includes three singles, released on Grennan's previously three EPs. Lighting Matches was generally well received by critics. NME critic Andrew Trendell said that the album "makes Bedford sound like Hollywood" and that Grennan "knows what he's doing". However, Clash critic Nick Roseblade said that the album "isn't a bad album, but sadly it doesn't excel either" and that "it all feels a little too rehearsed and sanitised in its delivery."
“I wanted to create a classic-sounding album that hopefully lasts for years,” Tom Grennan told Apple Music. “An album that doesn’t sound like anything else right now.” To achieve this for his full-length debut, the London singer/songwriter opted against using a single producer to oversee the entire record, instead picking particular producers for particular songs (including Fraser T. Smith, Sam Dixon and Eg White). “They all worked differently and all got something different out of me,” he said. Once his fledgling football career was shelved, Grennan endured a brutal gang attack at 18 and a time-honoured shift on London’s pub-gig trail before he met any sort of acclaim. <i>Lighting Matches</i> benefits from this circuitous path. He has clearly soaked up the varied expertise of his producers to craft a gloriously unpretentious pop-soul album as in thrall to gargantuan bangers (listen to standout “Aboard” immediately) as it is campfire love songs. “It’s got orchestras, brass, choirs,” he said. “It’s just a big-sounding record.”
