Chris T-T has long been one of the UK’s most underrated songwriters. With ample tenderness and vitriol, his songs move easily between polemics and touching pleas. ‘Good Songs In Small Rooms:Live 2005-2011’ is, as the name suggests, a compilation of live songs collected over many years. Throughout the album and best exemplified in the stirring ‘Bored Of The War’, T-T’s eloquence constantly pushes uncomfortable questions to the forefront. Never one to belittle his audience, his songs fearlessly tackle contentious questions of the time.
Live albums are often precarious things, can the live atmosphere transfer onto record, or will it come out flat? Results are often a gamble. ‘Good Songs In Small Rooms’ is lovingly lo-fi, rustic and unfussy. The accapella of ‘M1 Song’, a song based on traditional folk melodies, best displays T-T’s ability to create delicate songs that always have a powerful edge brewing underneath them. ‘Good Songs In Small Rooms’ balances old fan favourites such as ‘Preaching To The Converted’ and ‘The Huntsman Comes A Marching’ with newer material from T-T and his band ‘The Hoodrats’. The blazing ‘4am’ a raucous and unhinged rock song is a lively addition to the album. As is the achingly beautiful ‘Tall Women’, which shows that T-T can do melancholy with the best of them. ‘Good Songs In Small Rooms’ is a fantastic introduction for the curious who are looking for challenging and smart songwriting.
The album at 21 tracks does stray into double album territory, which for the causal listener may outstay its welcome. Yet , for the die-hard fans the addition of lesser-known tracks will be a real treat. ‘Good Songs In Small Rooms’ is a fine live album with a real DIY approach enthused throughout, if it does anything it shows that with a handful of songs, the right attitude and conviction, you can go out and make something special happen. ‘Good Songs In Small Rooms’ is an album most definitely not to be missed if you’re a lifer, but one that should also not to be overlooked by those who want fire and passion in their songs.
CLARA CULLEN