Photo by Steve Iggulden © 2018
Riccardo Cavrioli reflects on Tim Arnold’s new album ‘You Are For Me’.
Tim Arnold perfectly describes his new album himself, when, in the album’s liner notes, he signs off at the end of a list of acknowledgements and thanks with the words: “I needed to make this album“.
Arnold has never written to please potential clients, he has always written for himself, to overcome traumas, to exorcise his demons or to give strength to his ideas and needs. In this way, You Are For Me is no different. It is the eighteenth album in a career that never seems to settle or conclude. Whats more, the sensitivity of his melodic pop shows no signs of diminishing, but rather, becomes stronger with each new album.
You Are For Me arrives just one year after I Am for You, and from the title, one perceives a sort of continuity, as if the personal search for himself on the previous album has now been refocused to the person he is singing about. This album is suspended between doubts, romance, disappointments, hopes, moments of pride, sincerity, repugnance and the innate desire to believe everything can improve in difficult times.
Tim Arnold – ‘You Are For Me’ (2018)
The record was written and recorded in 4 locations over a period of five months: from London to Los Angeles, passing through Malaga and being completed in Toronto with Canadian producer and fellow singer songwriter Ben Pelchat. This geographical pilgrimage of Arnold’s has also become a pilgrimage to music itself, with a variety of sonic explorations that dazzles and holds our attention on all ten tracks. Arnold pours all his musical culture into the field, proving to be a human sponge that absorbs every reality surrounding him (there are even references to Italy, thanks to his short stay made in our country last summer) and this shows his genuine credibility, both in the moving piano ballad “A Page In Your Parade” that closes the album, and the upbeat pop Vivaldi sampling opener “About You”. In between these two extremes, there are some passages in which those who know Arnold’s discography will be at ease, such as the cabaret confessional of “Two of Her Favourite Things” or the classic singer songwriter’s touch of “Happy Thought”. But the real surprise for returning fans is the perfectly packaged synthetic blues of “I’m An Open Book”, (one of the most compelling and tantalizing pieces of the entire work), along with the gospel, RnB perfume of “Hope Is Like The Sun” and the perky American flavour of “Sunshine Through The Rain”. This is all new territory, however second nature it may sound.
Tim Arnold does not stop, and, after so many records, still shows an engaging vitality that undoubtedly comes from all his experiences. Above all, is his ability to use music as a fundamental boost to get up after a fall. On first listen, the album appears to be a musical manifestation of personal disappointment, but the final sentence in the booklet sums up the moments of hope that can be found in each song: that nothing is lost, and we are just at the beginning of a new adventure. “A dream you dream alone is just a dream, a dream you dream together is reality.” Thanks for this new magic Tim.
The album will be available to stream and download in the United Kingdom via all digital stores on the 3rd July, 2018 and is available in the UK to pre-order now. Outside of the UK, a 31-track Deluxe Download will be available from this website, also on the 3rd July, 2018. Check here for Tim’s live UK dates this Summer.
Riccardo Cavrioli is a journalist from Verona, Italy where he lives with his wife Nicoletta and their son Enrico. Riccardo writes for the online music publication