Almost Charlie - A Whisper in a World Too Loud

Release date: 9/30/2022

Signposts: The Beatles, Kings of Convenience, I Am Kloot, Elliot Smith, Turin Brakes, Nick Drake. Words On Music presents A Whisper in a World Too Loud – Almost Charlie’s fifth album of captivating waltzes, brisk indie pop gems, and ornate ballads delivered by Berlin singer / multi-instrumentalist Dirk Homuth and New York City lyricist Charlie Mason.

The record features a dozen new works that showcase a mastery of songwriting: Mason’s lyrical imagery is penned with such matchless wit and detail that it resonates as memorably as Homuth’s elegant melodies. Such cohesion defines the Homuth-Mason transatlantic songwriting team who, to this day, has never once met.

Homuth brilliantly uses the economy of songwriting implemented by giants like The Beatles (“On The Best Day I Can’t Wait to Remember”) and Simon & Garfunkle (“Somewhen Else”) to guide his hand as he pens an undeniably personalized musical signature.

The 3/4-metered album opener, “The Carousel Never Stops,” finds Oded Kaydar’s piano plucks and swells complementing Homuth’s voice in a fatalistic account of the circularity of existence. “Go a Little Easy” is quickly etched onto the list of the band’s most immediate indie pop gems with a soaring chorus, Beach Boys-esque bridge, and an understated trumpet solo.

Almost Charlie records reliably present an array of sonic palettes with which Homuth recounts Mason’s profoundly touching yet clever verse: sprouting from the rumbling, atmospheric rhythms of “Hear the Leaves,” locked in step with the glockenspiel-punctuated “Things,” and causally recounted on the record’s sparse, loungy coda “Bricks.”

Almost Charlie was formed in early summer 2003 when Homuth answered an Internet ad from Mason who was searching for a composer. Over the next 19 years the songwriting duo have written five albums with a strict division of lyricist and composer that brings to mind classic songwriting teams like Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Track List:

1. The Carousel Never Stops
2. Go A Little Easy
3. On The Best Day I Can’t Wait To Remember
4. Hear The Leaves
5. Two Black Eyes
6. Lead Balloon
7. Things
8. Dinosaurs
9. Typewriter
10. Somewhen Else
11. Thin Ice
12. Bricks