Tom Law: Build From Zero

 

   Last week, one of my favorite singers ever, Tom Law, released his long awaited EP Build From Zero and I couldn't have been more excited to listen to it since this is his first EP in forever and I have been waiting so long to hear some more of Tom's original songs (not that his covers aren't phenomenal).
   The beginning of this long journey awaiting Build From Zero started when Tom posted a rough draft of "Give It A Chance" and then begin including information about the EP in his vlogs. As the EP got ever closer to coming out, Tom even posted a music video for the clean and ready version of the song which was predictably gorgeous. Let me just pause here to remind you guys that I was insanely excited for this. I mean I've been following Tom and his music since last summer (I found him in a Becoming YouTube episode) and have watched every single cover multiple times and had the Dropping In EP and "Never Met You" on repeat for days (may or may not weeks) so this four song compilation was a HUGE deal for me and when it finally dropped I was over the moon. On the first day of Build From Zero coming out, Tom was number forty nine in the regular album charts and five in singer songwriter!(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I will have to admit at this point that I put an insane amount of pressure and was getting a little worried as the release came closer and closer that I would be upset since I was building up such high expectations for it but god was I wrong.
   The EP consists of four songs: "Give It A Chance", "Never Met You", "Move It Along", and "Got to Go". The first track was pretty awesome for a beginning song to open up the album and I find the entire thing super cute- the original version is still number two on my most played songs in my iTunes library. I like it a lot since it features almost all of the instruments Tom plays while keeping the minimal feel he pulls off so well. Onto the second track, "Never Met You", my only reaction was seriously "wow"- I even had to stop what I was doing just so I could listen to the revamped version of Tom's big hit. I really appreciate how he did some touch ups on the song such as adding a more prominent bass line and percussion while not ruining it with all too much. This song meant even more to me since "Never Met You" was the first song I ever heard of Tom Law and listening to it again a year later was pretty fucking cool. "Move It Along" was the second song Tom featured off the EP and I just love how catchy it is- especially the refrain throughout the song which has an awesome harmony. The music video was also pretty great too (here) Another quality I loved about the song was how much of Tom's voice it really showed. The rest of the EP covers his instrumental talents but I believe "Move It Along" seriously captures the beauty of Tom Law's vocals. Last but not least, my favorite song off the EP, "Got to Go". I like how Tom made this one super minimal instrument wise with only a guitar and drum yet added some harmony in to create depth. I choose the fourth track over the others though because of how meaningful the lyrics are. In previous videos, Tom has said that all his songs are written from real experiences and feelings and I can feel the passion Tom has in the words to "Got to Go".
   All in all, Build From Zero definitely didn't disappoint and I would absolutely recommend you checking it out (you can buy it on iTunes here if you're feeling super lovely but it is on Spotify for free) Tom is also an extremely wonderful guy (he has responded to every single tweet I have written to him and read every single blog post I wrote about him) so I'm just going to put that out there for an extra incentive to check out the EP.