Indie Pop Singer-Songwriter Jamie Mathias Releases New Album ‘The Great Escape LP’

Indie pop artist Jamie Mathias released his new album, ‘The Great Escape LP’ today, following the success of his EP release in 2015, which in turn led to huge success on his YouTube channel.

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Jamie started out in music performing in bands, and began to hone his skills as a solo performer at the age of 19, whereupon he decided to take his music in his own direction.
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Vocally reminding us of Ed Sheeran, Jamie Mathias splits his time between Brighton and London, and will be launching ‘The Great Escape LP’ on 29 September at Patterns, in Brighton, with more information on his social media pages.
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The 13 track album is piano and guitar led, with his sound ranging from pop and rock to hip hop (the latter particularly in first track ‘Nothing To Show’). Track 2 and lead single, ‘Started A Fire’, is a love song which is accompanied by a music video showing the struggles between a soldier and his girlfriend. It’s up-tempo and catchy, and a nice lead-in to the guitar track, ‘Ahead Of Myself’, which is where the comparisons to Ed Sheeran really begin, and his vocal styling and lyricism should definitely appeal to Sheeran fans.
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Title track ‘Great Escape’ again features guitar, and the sound of fingers sliding on the strings at the start is a pleasing effect, before launching into the rockier sounds of the chorus.
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We’re very pleased at the purity of Jamie’s vocal style, which is unusual in that his accent is clearly heard. This is quite evident in ‘Get By’, an indie-pop track. It’s in stark contrast to ‘When You Leave’, which although is also uptempo, is set apart by its strong percussion and deep bass instrumentation.
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Now into the second half of the album, ‘My Girl’ is another guitar-led track, and it’s clear that this is where Jamie feels most comfortable. The song is a beautiful dedication to his love, and it’s clearly been written with someone special in mind.
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‘Blow Your Mind’ is an electronic/hip hop number, hard and anthemic, initially calling to mind Bruno Mars, but quickly showing Mathias’ own style. His rhyming skills are impressive, and, in his own words, “he don’t even need a breather”.
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‘Aching’, track 9, again sees the piano return, joined by strings and Jamie’s heartfelt and melancholic singing. His passion and sadness is palpable and we wonder what personal experience he’s calling on in this track.
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Ten songs in and ‘The Day That We Collide’ is an appealing track with pop styling segueing into hip hop about a third of the way in. We enjoyed how Mathias is able to go from full pop to rhyming without skipping a beat.
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‘Friends With Benefits’ is another fine hip hop track, and penultimate track ‘If Only’ is moving and touching, but perhaps our favourite song on the album would be the final track, ‘Shards’, which sees Jamie perform live accompanied only by his acoustic guitar.
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‘The Great Escape LP’ does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s a great album, and provides the listener with an escape from the outside world. Play it loud and marvel at Jamie Mathias’ skills as an instrumentalist, vocalist, lyricist and rapper.
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Jamie Mathias will be launching ‘The Great Escape LP’ on September 29 at Patterns, Brighton. See here for tickets and further information.
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About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com

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