I saw Smalltalk on Facebook right before I saw his bandcamp page. After buying the album and listening to the first song “Better Than” I found a really compelling indie rock release. “Better Than” is also sung in English so I was confused if Smalltalk was a performer from outside of South Korea.
Smalltalk plays acoustic guitar and depending on the song, there is a different theme. “Love” is a good example of the change in style. It’s a much more simple guitar, bass, and drum song that focuses on Smalltalk’s vocals with the secondary backing of the band.
His voice seems to fit the “coffee house” style a little better than rock on previous songs. His song “Dance in the Rain,” is great. The arrangements of the band accompanied with piano and strings is a really good Sunday morning song. It’s calming and has a lot of excellent mixture of melodies from his voice to how the piano and violin mix with each other.
Warm Energy is a great release. While it’s not the style that I’m currently listening to a lot lately, it will be easy to appreciate it later on. It’s definitely a solid release and Smalltalk has a lot of room to experiment with his music if he chooses.
I first saw Smalltalk on Youtube and I was so struck by the first song, “Better Than,” that I had to listen to the whole album. I enjoyed “Love” very much and I would say that it’s my favorite on the album. Smalltalk is definitely a new favorite for me and I look forward to his future music.