Press

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Comfort Comes
Dirty Sexy Music
Tasty Zine
There Goes The Fear

Reviews

Organ 'Single Of The Week'
Loyal Trooper is Andy Walker and this is his self-released six track EP (and I’m trying to string together late night sentences about the sentences he strings together). A quick fix short-cut explanation would be something along the lines of saying he’s a bit like Frank Turner. That would be a quick lazy convenient short cut though, nothing more, and there are rather a lot fledgling Frank Turners around at the moment, none of them with the natural instinctive magic that Frank has. It would be easy to just dismiss Loyal Trooper as yet another if he doesn’t catch you in the right frame of mind and you’re not in the mood to really take it (or him) in properly – yes I’m guilty, dismissed this twice already and only now am I realising how good these songs and sentiments actually are. He’s like Frank Turner in the same way Metallica are like Slayer – nothing like each other when it really comes down to it.

These are songs full of personal emotion, diary pages and life and counting on your fingers just who give an f and stuck in mid twenties no man’s land. Frustrations, emotions, searches - and all sung with such simple emotion over an expressive acoustic guitar that all flows over the cleaver details so easily. Beds of expressive background keyboards, friends helping out with additional vocals and production that’s all just so perfectly simply right. Simple acoustic sounds and songs and sentiments brought to life and all with a sense of camaraderie somewhere in the disconnection and all the identical coffee-chain shops where the friends he cares for dearly don’t go anymore. A beacon on individuality in the middle of the identikit sound the same bands who may as well be musical equivalent of the Starbucks experience – that and to hell and back on the Old Street social scene or looking for old friends in Sheffield or growing up and going to gigs and sleeping rough afterwards.

Oh look, six really good songs, six really strong recordings, they’ve been playing on repeat for hours now, I’d happily hit repeat again if that pile over there wasn’t demand attention. Everything has clearly been put in to this and yes I know you could argue that that’s the case with every piece of music ever, but it really has here, six fine songs, give them songs a chance or two, they deserve it.

CMU
Andy Walker is Loyal Trooper, he has self released, produced and toured the arse off this record. Now people are taking notice, such as Lamacq and the other BBC radio luminaries. Andy is a perfect remedy to all the bullshit we have to suffer through manufactured bands and lazy rich kids who sell an aesthetic to a salivating industry cabal of vileness William Burroughs could not convey. He communicates an honesty that is in keeping with a confessional alt. comic. This is an existential folk-pop album that illuminates the nausea of what is essentially a young artist suffering with the fading of his youth, the detachment of a Northerner who has made London his home and the ramifications this has on personal relationships (both friends and romantically). The content is bleak and in the case of 'Old Street Social Scene' embittered, yet there is a definite beauty in the wistful longing that pervades the songs (especially 'M1 to the A52' which is a stunningly sad duet). He conveys a feeling that something better and more sincere is attainable; offering hope, to use the cliché of the day. What is most important is that he truly communicates something through his songs like Billy Bragg, Jarvis Cocker, Bob Mould or Jeff Lewis does. This is set upon a folk, alternative rock and country background that is sophisticated whilst having a distinct pop-sensibility. The ever present acoustic strum mixes with overdriven guitars, organs, or is occasionally stripped down, but always impregnated with rousing choruses. This could be a very important album.

Room Thirteen
Loyal Trooper’s ‘One Day All This Will Work Out…’ is a real DIY affair, produced and recorded between bedrooms and with drums tracked at a Kettering Baptist Church. The result is therefore surprisingly convincing and sounds as slick as any of the indie gracing the radiowaves at the moment.

Loyal Trooper’s songs are well-written with personal lyrics that describe various strains and personal stresses, but yet manage to keep an upbeat sound and jangly indie cheer enough to prevent them from becoming miserable monologues. “Sheffield’s lost all of its individuality” sighs ‘Division Street Blues’. ‘Five Year Plan’ is a pretty guitar-led tune with glittering riffs and tense, honest vocals that speaks of being stuck in your mid twenties and is easy to identify with. There’s a hint of Belle and Sebastian-esque indie storytelling in much of the EP (especially the delicate vocal harmonies of ‘M1 To The A52’) but it’s more wry and gritty and far less twee, should that concern you.

Personal songs can often alienate a listener, but Loyal Trooper manages to strike the perfect balance between music that draws you in and mirrors the lyrical mood and simple modern poetry. For a self-produced EP, Loyal Trooper displays an abundant wealth of talent and definite songwriting strength that deserves to reach a large audience, definitely one to watch.

Quotes

"Perfectly simply right"
Organ 'Single Of The Week'

"Understated and beautiful"
The Music Magazine

"Delightful sunshine pop"
Comfort Comes

"An upbeat pop masterpiece. Song writing of this quality should be cherished"
Tasty Zine

"A collection guitar anthems for the jilted generation"
There Goes The Fear

"Expert arrangements and clever autobiographical lyrics. The word is 'talent'"
Subba-Cultcha

"Without doubt a raw talent that needs to have an eye kept on him"
Sonic Dice

"Loyal Trooper pulls out a skein of interesting stories like he was a magician with a nice line in singer songwriter"
New-Noise

"He truly communicates something through his songs like Billy Bragg, Jarvis Cocker, Bob Mould or Jeff Lewis does"
CMU

"His instantly familiar style of telling stories has the power to capture your attention in layered emotion"
Button Thief

"Displays an abundant wealth of talent and definite songwriting strength that deserves to reach a large audience. One to watch"
Room Thirteen

"In spirit it is not a million miles away with Billy Bragg's 1983 debut"
Whisperin & Hollerin