David Thomas Broughton – Outbreeding (2011)

David Thomas Broughton is nothing if not underrated. That is not to say he isn’t rated at all, but in some ways the level of acclaim seems disproportionate to what he has managed to produce so far. No surprise that this level continues and even increases with Outbreeding, a record which captures the man and the musician perfectly in its ten tracks of fluctuating emotional peaks and troughs and fits and starts.
An overload of variety can be perplexing, whether it’s to the mouth, eyes or the ears. The eye wanders, but so does the ear and it’s difficult, nay impossible, to not be distracted by the myriad streams entering the auditory canals during the course of Outbreeding. There is an awful lot happening left, right and centre with simple beginnings becoming greater and greater. The one component which holds it together and keeps your attention the most is Broughton’s voice – his literary voice as much as his musical one. It was often said that beige-suited and beige-skinned cricket commentator Richie Benaud was (and still is) a great because he only told the listener what they needed to know, with the pictures filling the thoughts when he wasn’t orating. That philosophy applies to DTB, too, who knows when to sing, unrushed, and when to let everything else play out, unaccompanied vocally.