The Water Goes The Other Way. Oliver Earnest

With Oliver Earnest Glitterhouse Records presents another aspiring artist from Stuttgart. The Hamburg based label looks south for new talent and rightly so. After Peter Muffin Trio Oliver Earnest is the second act from Stuttgart to be releasing a debut album in 2021.

With The Water Goes The Other Way the singer certainly makes his point. There's not a lot typically German on the album. It is all U.S. and a little U.K. that is set as a standard. The bio calls out a lot of names, but most are unknown to me. My tastes in music in a general sense tend towards the U.K. and more and more my own home country, where alternative rock and appreciation of the great bands from around 1970 is concerned.

All these kinds of music have found their way into this album. From solid ballads to alternative rock with strong pop elements, it can all be found on The Water Goes The Other Way. Tight rhythms, a strong, solid bass and interesting guitar lines support the vocal melodies. Oliver Earnest's voice has this deeper quality with enough high to make it very pleasant to listen to.

Anyone who would pose that Oliver Earnest plays in a punkrock band, Kaufman Frust, would not be believed. Add to that, that his band member Florian Stepper produced and contributed to The Water Goes The Other Way, it becomes even more mystifying. There simply isn't a thread of punkrock to be found on The Water Goes The Other Way. Except, perhaps, that the best punkrock songs in my book always have a great (vocal) melody. But then, that goes for all songs, doesn't it?

If anything, The Water Goes The Other Way sounds mature. The songs all have a serious tone, not in the first place because of the sound of Earnest's voice. The music matches it perfectly. This does not mean to say that the songs do not have experimental elements. Take a serious listen and you will find abundant embellishments and little surprises woven into the fabric of the songs. The combination of music and tone of voice give the album a serious nature, resulting in an invitation to do some serious listening.

Serious listening however can be a hazard for an artist. There's a huge risk of not delivering up on the promise. It's here that I can reassure you, serious listening only makes The Water Goes The Other Way grow a little more. 'Crosswords' makes me think immediately of The The (yes, U.K.), the darkness is everywhere, salvation not nearby, underscored by the final line "I'm bracing for the impact". Oliver Earnest, like The The, is able to create beauty with minimal effects.

How much the order of songs on an album matter, is shown by the next song, 'Usual Amount'. More tempo, a little more upbeat, as the song has a dark, true, pop part within it. The effect is that both songs stand out more than they ever could apart or in another order.

With The Water Goes The Other Way Oliver Earnest has presented himself to the world in a truly convincing way, with a sound that should be appealing to the whole world and not just Germany. This is a universal pop-rock sound that resonates easily with people who fancy this style, like me.

Wout de Natris