Nick J.D. Hodgson - Tell Your Friends

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 15 / 4 / 2018

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You might well have heard the name Nicholas James David "Nick" Hodgson before. A younger Mr Hodgson attended St. Mary's Menston School with a certain Nick Baines and Simon Rix before then going on to Trinity and All Saints University College in Horsforth, Leeds where he studied Media. He later went on to meet a guy named Ricky Wilson and also another called Andrew "Whitey" White at a mod night called Move on Up at The Underground in Leeds. I think by now you have probably worked it all out. Together they formed Runston Parva, later to be called Parva and then eventually Kaiser Chiefs in which our hero was the drummer, backing vocalist and songwriter. Hodgson, however, announced via his Twitter account in 2012 that he had left Kaiser Chiefs to concentrate on other projects and since then he has focused all his attentions on the studio due to his mixed relationship with touring. He has said about it, "I loved touring at some point, but I didn't love it all the time and I didn't love it as much as everyone else." He was the main songwriter in Kaiser Chiefs and he continues to write for other people, having had a hand in 'Bang Bang Bang' with Mark Ronson, and also scribing for talents such as the Vamps, Kodaline, Olly Murs, Lower Than Atlantis, Dua Lipa, John Newman, Hurts, Dagny, James Arthur and Duran Duran on the Mark Ronson-produced album 'All You Need is Now'. He has also written for Shirley Bassey. You may not know his name off the top of your head, but you have probably been jigging around to the sounds of Nick J.D. Hodgson for the past fifteen years as he has penned many of the songs you’ve drunkenly screamed into your mate’s face at an indie night. As writer of some of Kaiser Chiefs' classic hits including 'I Predict a Riot' and 'Ruby', you would have thought that Hodgson might have written for his debut solo CD a whole disc of anthems to jump up and down to but that isn't the case here. Don't get me wrong! There is no doubt that he is no stranger to great tunes, and the album is a fair account of the man's many undoubted talents. From the opening track 'RSVP', one is greeted with an in-your-face blast of different sounds, but the whole affair lacks punch. While his songwriting knows no bounds and a plethora of pundits are giving it rave reviews, 'All You Need is Now' falls a little short of what I was expecting. Hodgson's voice is unusual and has a Tin Tin Duffy-style indie croon. It is also packed with potentially strong tracks. 'Honest Face' and 'Feel Better' are in their own way quite addictive, but for me the highlight though is 'Suitable', which has been picked for release as the latest single and the video for which was directed by his wife Anna in the Suffolk countryside and filmed on an iPhone and selfie stick. Ihe album to me though, while of a very, very good standard, just lacks something. It is a bit like a cottage pie but without the peas.

Track Listing:-

1 Rsvp
2 Honest Face
3 Suitable
4 I Love The Way Your Mind Works
5 Tomorrow I Love You
6 Feel Better
7 Iceberg
8 My Own American Dream
9 Thank You
10 Don’t Forget To Go To Sleep

Band Links:-

https://twitter.com/nickjdhodgson
https://www.nickjdhodgson.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nickjdhodgson
https://www.instagram.com/nickjdhodgson/
https://www.songkick.com/artists/9296844-nick-jd-hodgson

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