The singer’s debut album is a soaring and feel-good record that is certainly a crowd pleaser.
Sam Ryder has certainly been a very different national hero, winning hearts and votes thanks to his incredible performance at this year’s Eurovision contest, proving to be a real breathe of fresh air with the song ‘Space Man’ that very much fitted in with the Eurovision vibe and proving to be a crowd pleaser.
Now his debut album shows exactly what incredible vocal diversity he has, his range consistently to new highs as heard on songs ‘Tiny Riot’ or ‘ Put a Light on Me’ that is seriously impressive and confident for a debut album. This is a singer who knows exactly where his strengths lie and there is certainly plenty of it to come. Yes perhaps the lyrics on some of the songs become slightly predictable – there is still no denying that there is an undeniable sincerity to them as well that gives the song its emotional core.
There is a consistency to this album that means that there are plenty of earworms to be found on this record that changes the mood effectively. In particular whether it is the joyful and anthem sounding ‘Deep Blue Doubt’ that gets the album off to a brilliant start or the more chilled out vibe of ‘Whirlwind’ there is plenty of moods on display throughout. You can’t help but imagine just how he would perform each song live, there is such a vividness to all of the songs that you can’t help but visualise in this way – particularly given the incredible performance he gave at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Some may find the type of music that he has created is slightly predictable given ‘Space Man’ – however, there is no doubting his likability factor as a singer that will continue to win him fans. If you listen to songs such as ‘Ok’ or ‘Somebody’, you can see very much his appeal in delivering earnest music that people can sing and dance along to. He has created a fun and consistently entertaining album that will appeal to many people and convince them that he is certainly more than just a one hit wonder as you can tell with a slightly more edgy sounding ‘Living Without You’, featuring Sigala and David Guetta which is one of the most catchy tracks on the album.
All of the songs featured on the album have been designed to be crowd pleasers and it is certainly an enjoyable listen. To see them performed live would absolutely take this album to the next level and we would get to hear them as they really deserved to be heard: in a stadium. A fabulously confident debut that makes you wonder what he is going to do next.
By Emma Clarendon
There’s Nothing But Space, Man is available to buy and download now.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐