It Just Is

Every album creates its own world of sound and vision, but a singer/songwriter's set takes the listener into his own personal universe, and a great one into his very soul. Steve Roberts does just that on his debut solo album, It Just Is. The former 16 Tambourines singer is joined by a number of his Liverpudlian compatriots, including Paul Hemmings (the Las) and Angie Pollock (Lightning Seeds), while Pollock's bandmate Martyn Campbell co-produces. Together they conjure up a mostly acoustic set filled with rich, evocative atmospheres, dreamy but heavy with emotional undertones, the perfect pastel wash for Roberts to paint his thoughts upon. The vast majority of songs are intensely personal, and written about or for his wife and daughter, although Roberts occasionally touches on darker themes and other matters. One of the most touching is "Beautiful Girl," where the singer expresses his wonder and awe for his baby, and how she has transformed his life. Roberts has experienced several personal tragedies in recent years, and their shadows occasionally hover in the background, but now cocooned in family and surrounded by love, his newfound joy is all the more magical, and a world listeners will wish to luxuriate within alongside him.