ROLE MODEL’s New Album, 'Chuck Timely & The Hourglass' Delivers a Country Folk Feast

Released last Friday (7th August), this album serves authentic sounds and an easy-to-follow narrative.

In this album, ROLE MODEL incorporates country and folk genres as well as any other American singer-songwriter. Across the album, he provides clear narrative in song titles, while also treating us to rocking cowboy tempos and authentic instrumentation. 

By ‘authentic’ I mean that each element is identifiable and has a clear purpose. The layering of voice, guitars, piano and drums which does occur nearly always develops the tone for the listener. We don’t get any overly complex webs of sound reserved for academic dissection.

The opening three songs on the album all have different instruments driving them, and they built on one another particularly well. Opening the album with a pleasant surprise, Chuck’s Mantra is built out of just vocals and a single, repeated verse. The verse has a spiritual quality to it in the way it makes a pronouncement about being deserving. To emphasise this quality, a softly spoken but sublime gospel choir join ROLE MODEL for the second rendition of the verse. 

Then, the transition into the second song, High Hopes 3000 is enlivening. It begins with an up-beat major chord sequence and an excited, high-pitch “whoop” from the singer. This energy continues to roll along as the drums and guitars join in, although they never overpower the piano. 

The piano does also feature in the third track, Song Is All You Get, however the drums and guitars take the leading role here. In fact, this is a good indicator of the fair relationship between the instruments right through the album. For instance, Good Thing features some wonderful jazz-like harmonic trills on the piano, while Joy features raw electric guitar, bleeding at the edges with a slight Wah pedal. 

To now consider the wider narrative of the album, this has definitely been thought through in the way you would expect folk music to be. Just looking at the titles of the tracks tells us what the album is about. It is certainly not the most original love story, but nonetheless, ROLE MODEL clearly takes us from belief and hope (High Hopes 3000), through finding the perfect person, to The Wedding and Harmony. 

Feelings across the album including love (Love I You), Joy, and being like a Stain are undeniably human, but the more cynical listener should still be warned of the particularly cheesy lyrics at points. The best example of this is Honeydew, an incredibly soppy song stuck with personal pronouns and rammed with romanticised cliches. 

But then, maybe… I’m just a miserable git! Either way, be sure to give this album a listen as it is ultimately a great addition to the country folk genre.