Oh blessed Amber Heard, what have we here? Another singer happy to run through the forest of Americana at half speed with no desire whatsoever to escape the overwhelming mediocrity so typical of the genre? Right first time and Tony McLoughlin takes every opportunity not to impress with his ironically named album “The Contender”.
His voice just about scrapes him through the up-tempo songs but on the slower songs like “Moonshadows” even the most tolerant of you will wonder if you have found the reason why autotuning was invented. To further drag things down, dear Mr McLoughlin has chosen the most leaden collection of backing musicians this side of a laptop with the end result, as you might now expect, being simply tedious.
The great Americana cruise liner is already full to overflowing with dullards so, with a bit of luck, adding Tony McLoughlin might finally sink that ship.