Saturday, April 2, 2022

Armstrong doesn’t sound like anyone else

 By Henry Lipput

If you follow Armstrong (aka Julian Pitt) on Twitter I’m sure you’ve noticed that when he’s tweeting about one of his songs he adds a list of other musicians to attract notice to his work. I’m here to tell you (and him) that he doesn’t need to do that anymore.

With the release of his radiant third album Happy Graffiti (TheBeautiful Music/Country Mile Records) Armstrong has made it clear, with his trademark DIY use of vocals, acoustic guitars, and snyths, he doesn’t sound like anyone else because he has a sound all his own. But if some of the songs on the new album sound familiar it’s not because they sound like someone else; it’s because for the past year or so he’s been tweeting early versions of some of these songs and one of them, “Happy Someone,” was released as a single last year.



One of the themes in Armstrong’s work is the idea of walking with a friend or partner and having a conversation to work out problems (“Keep on Walking” and “Eyes Wide Open”). “Keep on Walking” is also one of Happy Graffiti’s songs in which upbeat arrangements bump up against melancholy lyrics: “But I don’t feel afraid/I keep walking through a summer’s day/Keep on walking with me.” And on “Outside Looking In:” “I was always on the outside looking in/I broke the chains that bind my heart/That hold me down and never let me go.”

The lovely, gentle “Songbird” recalls McCartney’s avian flights and “In A Memory” has a piano-based “Let It Be”/”The Long and Winding Road” feel to it. “Happy Someone” gives a lift to Happy Graffiti with its positive message of lessons learned: “Time will tell if we’ve learned our lessons/Opened up the world to feel like something new/Time to be that person/Be that someone/Be that someone/Life lights up the sky full of angels.”

Instrumental tracks on an album can feel as if the songwriter can’t quite come up with the words to fit the melody. Happy Graffiti’s “Days Turn into Months,” however, is unique in that it fits just right in the running order and the album as a whole.