Liam Frost
The Lexington, London
22/02/2010

If we’d suspected that many of tonight’s busy audience are here because of a very successful recent single with Martha Wainwright, ‘Your Hand In Mine’, then we’d be in good company.  “You might be here for the upbeat stuff, but I’m gonna start singing some songs about funerals from my first album in a minute”, Liam Frost says, before the young Mancunian introduces us to what he may deem to be his modus operandi – “let’s get vulnerable”.

As it turns out, most of those present are familiar with Frost’s early work and provide him with the hushed silence that this solo show deserves.  His singing style is full of exclaimed lyrics, delivered with accent intact.  He is true to his word in delivering a fair few introspective numbers, bittersweet and wistful, but the songs with more energy are actually more suited to his vocals.  It’s more than just a good line in upbeat, as in ‘The City Is At Standstill’, and ‘She Painted Pictures’, it’s the songs with an undercurrent of determination that really impress.  ‘The Mourner’s Of St Paul’s’ has a wonderful spirit in the face of sadness and, although it takes a lot to make up for a missing Wainwright, his more muted and coy version of the single and his cover of Echo And The Bunnymen’s ‘Killing Moon’ are quietly bold and all the better for it.  These performances have a power through their understatement, like a conversation more interesting for what isn’t said, and it’s this quality that lifts Frost above the ordinary.

His charm helps. He forgets lyrics mid-song, on two separate occasions, but it’s not a problem.  Tonight he is playing to the converted but with this kind of talent the ranks will start swelling.

Martin Cordiner