Kent’s Old Town Souls return with their third EP '2018'. Band leader Iverson, relentlessly plays around Kent solo or with his band and nationwide with a Who covers band.
This work ethic, without the riches that rock music once offered, seems to be informing band leader Kevin Iverson’s song writing. There is an ache, a nagging tension throughout. ‘My Only Narcotic’ sees Iverson blowing of steam to his wife. The loneliness of life on the road and, a life that hasn’t given him the break his talent yearns for (yet).
With a QOTSA riff pulsating away, Iverson reflects on might yet be and the principles in which to get there. The anguish he gets over on the line ‘easily distracted to a heart that’s been neglected’ is a stomach turner. It’s no wonder he is questioning selling his soul.
On ‘Silence’, Iverson has saved the best till last. It’s Shane Meadows style in a rock-cum-soul form. At times, it’s a gritty romance with the love interest emerging from a cloud of cigarette smoke. In true Meadows glory though, it’s coupled with the monotonous of everyday life.
Comfortably the best of the three EPs from Old Town Souls so far. Musically, the hall marks of the other two remain but, there is a feeling that, in a bleak personal period, Iverson has soul searched and come out victorious.