What's the deal with Lone Wolf?

Wasn't there supposed to be a global moratorium on all Wolf-related names for bands and solo artists due to annoying over-usage? Just because the Vultures debut album which sad sack singer/songwriter Paul Marshall from Leeds issued three years ago under his own dull name went absolutely nowhere doesn't give him the right to sneak out a new recording under the alias Lone Wolf. Even if there wasn't specific wording to cover alter-egos, Marshall clearly isn't adhering to the spirit of the sanity-saving ban.
But there is a bigger problem with Marshall's new album, The Devil And I (Bella Union), and that's his dangerously short-sighted decision to jump on the 70s soft-rock bandwagon which is already overcrowded with hairy Yanks like Band Of Horses, Blitzen Trapper, Magnolia Electric Co. and Fleet Foxes. If someone told me a decade ago that in 2010, musically-gifted young artists would be consciously trying to sound more like their parents' Eagles, Styx and Kansas LPs as a way to sell more records, I never would've believed it. Alarming as the softening trend might seem, that appears to be precisely what's happening all over North America – check out the kinder, gentler Sadies on their new ballad-heavy Darker Circles album – and it's spreading overseas.

 Admittedly, Marshall's brooding take on the genre is gloomier than most of his American counterparts and the more elaborate arrangements on The Devil and I aren't quite in the same league as the fanciful string and vocal orchestrations of say, Fleet Foxes or even Blitzen Trapper (who sound like they've been digging some Supertramp lately), the ho-hum album is receiving a flurry of four-star reviews and purple praise from the UK press who can't find enough superlatives to hype it.
"Softly sung sweetness, lustrous harmonies and dextrous guitar work" pronounced a breathless Q critic while another hack from Clash Magazine chimed in "An absolutely gorgeous first attempt from a one to watch artist" which at the very least indicates that Marshall's name change ruse is working precisely according to plan. Props to his label boss and manager Simon Raymonde for a career renovation job well done.

    

Keep Your Eyes On The Road by Lone Wolf



LINKS
site www.iamlonewolf.com
myspace www.myspace.com/thisislonewolf