John Allen - Friends & Other Strangers (2019)

Five years ago John Allen entertained the visitors of a Frank Turner concert as a street musician in front of the club entrance. Turner liked his presentation so well that he hired the Hamburg songwriter from the spot as support for the next tour. The beginning of the career was done. At that time, the 1984-born musician had just recorded his debut album Sounds Of Soul And Sin, followed by Sophomore (2014) and Ghosts (2016). Two years after the rather bleak predecessor, Allen returns with Friends & Other Strangers.

John Allen Friends & Other Strangers Cover Gunner Records "It was time to try to make old wounds and fight the darkness that prevails in my soul. Music has always been a catalyst, diary and therapy for me, so it was logical that I wanted to focus on songs that sound less like apocalypse and more after sunrise, "John Allen explains his approach to Friends & Other Strangers. So it's no surprise that Allen starts the album with "New Morning," a song that already sounds like a Bruce Springsteen classic. Allen's harsh voice also makes one think of Chuck Ragan or Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem.

The noise of a record in the first few seconds of the piano intro just allows the conclusion that an analogue sound is for the songwriter of important and perhaps consolatory meaning. And since Springsteen is stuck somewhere on Broadway, now others have to sing of "broken teenage dreams". With Allen's power of persuasion, "New Morning" is more than just a substitute for New Jersey rock-overs. His rock'n'roll gets even more rigid and tougher in "45 After Dark", while the title song "Friends & Other Strangers" announces a threatening and dramatic kind of nocturnal Reeperbahn walk.

Allen Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce set a musical memorial ("Hemingway") in the John Mellencamp meets John Hiatt manner, and "Raise Your Voice" uses his artistic influence to spread political-social messages against xenophobia and racism , Another overwhelming Springsteen memory hymn. The ballads "What It Takes" (including melancholic string accompaniment), "Making Lists" (including gentle winds) and "Late Night Summer Serenade" (an intimate-uplifted album closer) as well as the longing-romantic "Northern Star" complete Friends & Other Strangers. An album that shows John Allen as a bear-strong, mature and washed-up songwriter. Chapeau!