monoblogue music: “24 Years” (single) by Mark Peters

While the photo attached is that of the root EP for Vienna-based singer-songwriter Mark Peters, the review concerns the latest single from the compilation, called 24 Years.

If you believe the press puffery which came with the release of this single, you would be told that Peters wrote this song about 15 years ago. (This makes sense when you listen, then read on and find that Mark turns 40 this year.) This would have placed Mark at a time when he was back in his native London playing in a local band called Seven Breaths. As often happens after a band is together awhile without a great deal of commercial success, some go their separate ways and this is what happened to Mark – he went separately all the way to Vienna.

So given the fact the song has been going around Mark’s head for awhile, one has to ask whether it was worth the wait? Not knowing this and listening to the initial chords, I thought for a bit that this was going to be a country song – until I heard him sing and it dispelled that notion. (This is what happens when you do a cold listen and don’t read the liner notes until afterward.)

Now while I got to cheat in that way and listen to the song a couple times all the way through before writing this, I’m going to really cheat and allow you to very easily listen and watch for yourself.

I have to say that the video was quite interesting. As for the song, I thought it was rather good – perhaps a little less so in some runs of the chorus, but as a whole a nice enough song. However, as part of the context of making a more complete review I have to say that 24 Years (as the second single) is considerably weaker than the initial release of the title track. In fact, I would rate 24 Years as the middle of the pack as far as songs from the “Spirits” EP goes.

I’ll grant that this isn’t particularly different than anything you can hear on this side of the Atlantic, but there is a market for this song and EP in the acoustic/adult contemporary genre. If that’s your thing, watch the video then check out his website, which is rather nice as well.