Max Rafferty – ‘Lonely Town/Spill’ single

Max Rafferty, ex-Kooks bassist, has an incredible past in the music sphere and on November 22nd he made his return with the ‘Lonely Town/Spill’ single. This single included three tracks: ‘Lonely Town’, ‘Spill’ and ‘Go Down Easy’. He is a great writer and the songs have a solid grounding lyrically.

‘Lonely Town’ is an upbeat rock track that starts off with a bang. His voice fits perfectly with the rougher edge and then you hit the chorus. The song seems very jumbled and confused at this point. I feel like it is trying to be a much more intense song but doesn’t build up enough to reach it.

‘Spill’ had the opposite affect on me. The music is much more interesting but his voice is doing very bizarre things at the ends of his longer notes. That said ‘Spill’ is a much stronger song and probably my favourite of the three. It is radio friendly and could definitely do very well with the public.

‘Go Down Easy’ is a little flat musically, which is disappointing because of the lyrics and his voice. I so badly wanted this track to erupt in an intense middle section. The music stays exactly the same the whole time, this almost haunting background music. I get what he was trying to do, but wish he would have ramped it up a little bit.

The ‘Lonely Town/Spill’ single is not bad, but the songs felt almost like demos instead of finished rock songs. ‘Spill’ was the only solid track, with ‘Lonely Town’ and ‘Go Down Easy’ faltering slightly in the music department. These songs do grow on you and listening to the lyrics helps to add more depth. All in all it is great to see Rafferty back making music again, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.