Joshua Radin Breathes Life Back into Singer-Songwriter Genre

In Joshua Radin’s new record titled, “Wax Wings”, we get a refreshing look back at simple yet elegant lyrics. In an almost unplugged album, it’s a refreshing step back in time to early singer songwriting.
With Radin, each song is a little bit like the one before, but yet also strangely different. He opens up with a song titled, Beautiful Day, which sets the tone for the whole album. The whole record has a strong, yet intimate feel, the type of music you would hear over the speakers in a small town coffee shop.
As is custom of a Radin album, the topic of strong love songs fills the bulk of the album. With songs like “Cross That Line” we have ballads that set up a mixture of piano and guitar, as well as songs of storytelling with the song “Back To Where I’m from”.
As the album progresses, we get a more intimate sound, but that’s as far as we get. With “Lovely Tonight”, we get beautiful instrumentals and great lyrics, which makes this song perfect for a first dance song at a wedding. As the album pushes farther, we get some of his stronger lyrics, especially in a song like, “Like They Used To”. With lyrics like “I want to dream in the same bed as you”, we can really see how is lyrical ability has evolved in since his previous album, “Underwater”. But, as the album moves towards the finale, the lyrics tend to get simpler, which could be seen as a disappointment.
Radin concludes the record with “My My Love”, which is the perfect wrap up song for this record. It possesses simple, yet striking lyrics, and really shows off his ability as a storyteller, as this song represents him coming back to his love after straying. All in all, this album was tied together very well. It is a very steady improvement from “Underwater”, but doesn’t contain the wow factor like his peers have done in recent releases. “Wax Wings” is very solid and it shows maturity in Joshua Radin, which is a true breath of life into the Singer-Songwriter genre.

3.5 Stars

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