#i'm pursuing my long time dream of becoming a music reviwer 😂

[saraminia]

So here's my first reaction after a couple listens through T is for Tillerson (under the cut so you can go in without preconceived notions when you listen to it):

Okay so..... mixed feelings..... I think I see the vision with this little side project... The production is very mid to late 1980s. The whole vibe and the visual look of the T is for Tillerson cover suits this theme. This is a distinctly soundtrack ep. These songs work best as background music. I can't say that I agree with the arrangements of these songs, if one can agree with an arrangement. This feels also distinctly Billy Tillerson. Which is very different from Noah Reid. You'll do best going in without expecting to hear Noah Reid covers of these songs. Because I feel like Noah Reid version of these songs would sound very different. I must admit, as beautiful as Noah's voice is, it starts grating a little bit to listen to several songs in a row sung in this pretty thin higher register into falsetto. Maybe that's why I think the song that works best out of these five is Every Rose Has Its Thorn. It is sung in a lower register than the others and is closer to a good old fashioned country song. The Kiss sounds closer to a song from a musical. Its performance is emotive and theatrical. Dreams is very much stripped down into a ballad with a very 80s production with the echoes and winding electric guitar. In my opinion it's stripped down so much it's almost unrecognizable. To be frank it's stripped down from everything I love about this song. It feels kind of powerless and anemic. Save The Best For Last is another very 80s synth ballad. It actually sounds pretty fun and nostalgic. But again, he sings it in a higher register and I'm not sure I'm into that choice. Calling Al Angels is just yawn inducing but gotta love the 80s fade to black ending. Very fitting with the theme. Also gotta love the typo in the title. Oh Billy.

So my reaction is just...huh. Okay. Interesting. This ep won't come into heavy rotation for me. Apart from maybe Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Basically I feel like this is an EP by some local small time artist, you could find on sale at some road side gas station in the US in the 1980s. And I suspect that that vibe might even have been very much intentional.

But don't take my word for it! Go listen and give your reactions and tag me so I can see them! I'm so interested to see how y'all will react to this EP.