Peter Hall - There’s Something Wrong With Everyone

by Kimberly Bright

published: 26 / 11 / 2020

Peter Hall - There’s Something Wrong With Everyone

Label: The Beautiful Music
Format: CDS

Breathtakingly impressive debut EP from singer-songwriter Peter Hall

Review

The CD packaging of Nottingham-based singer-songwriter Peter Hall’s “There’s Something Wrong with Everyone” EP is cleverly designed to look like a ‘50s or ‘60s album you’d run across at a flea market or in your auntie’s record cabinet. The title itself is a phlegmatic philosophy that suggests much more cynical songs than the slick, polished, upbeat ones presented here. Hall, formerly of Play People, has mastered sweet acoustic jangle pop to the extent that if Masonic musical degrees were bestowed on artists, he would have received the highest one by the end of the second track, which happens to be 'Blood Flow', and higher honours would have to be invented just for him. The song, like the opener 'Hold Me' is saturated with late-Wings McCartney, with the message that life is short, dammit: “While the blood flows through my body/While the electricity sparks/I’m gonna love you like it’s all I have to do with you.” The message of 'Everything is Fading Fast', a stark reminder that everything in the material world is at the mercy of entropy and dissolution, should be alarming, but Hall’s honeyed voice and the overall ‘70s cheery pop feel expertly trick the listener into believing that everything will be perfectly alright. The press release mentions Aztec Camera, the Lilac Time, Elliot Smith, Delta, Captain Soul, January, and Paul Weller as influences, but surely Donovan, Bee Gees, more McCartney, and Teenage Fanclub should be on that list as well. There’s a charming hidden track at the end which is equally effortlessly melodic and seems calculated to make everyone hope that Hall releases his debut album soon.