Originally published by L.S. Media. July 12th 2012. .

L.S. Media Rating ****

Sometimes you miss the boat on the start of a musician’s career and you kick yourself for it. Newton Faulkner is one such case in point. With two albums under his belt already, Newton Faulkner is already considered a rare talent. His third album, Write It On Your Skin, confirms the platitudes and detailed examination of his song writing style.

For a man who only released his first album in 2007, Write It On Your Skin shows an incredible sense of musical maturity, a purpose that you wouldn’t expect and one that will still resonate with the fans who first saw the musician’s potential and heard his amazing voice.

With any solo artist, there is nowhere to hide on an album. Even if you surround yourself with decent quality musicians, ultimately the recording is still yours; you live and die by how people perceive your output and where some ultimately get distracted by what the album is going to become and it can get lost in the noise. Newton Faulkner suffers no such problem on this album; its ethereal folk feel comes across as having been written in a permanent state of bliss, even on the slightly downbeat songs, there is a subtle sense of joy that parades itself throughout.

There are some very good songs on the album that anyone with a decent musical ear would have been proud to call their own and then there are some extremely wonderful songs that just capture your heart and holds it prisoner until you give in, ultimately surrendering any passion you have as you will have received more than enough in return.

Songs such as Brick By Brick, Pick Up Your Broken Heart and the album’s title track don’t just announce themselves to the listener, they bang hard on the door, shaking the windows and finally shouts through the available letterbox with a flourish that they deserve to be heard and won’t go away quietly, no matter how much you say you don’t like folk music.

Write It On Your Skin is a fantastic album, full of determination to get the songs across and the recording can be likened to that of a day of sunshine after a month of rain, a relief and destined to put a smile on your face.

Write It On Your Skin is Available now to buy now.

Ian D. Hall