Album Review: Tim Vantol – If We Go Down, We Will Go Together!

He has said he is the slowest songwriter ever, but four years after his debut, Tim Vantol‘s second full-length is finally here: “If We Go Down, We Will Go Together!“. The Dutch singer is known for his punk lyrics accompanied by singalong melodies. Will it work for him once more on the new album? Check our review below.

Title song ‘If We Go Down, We Will Go Together!‘ starts off with group vocals done by Tim and Dutch band John Coffey. A clever start, because you immediately get the urge to sing along. And believe me, you will sing along somewhere on this record. Off to ‘Dirty Boots‘, a song on people who live on welfare but are not doing anything to earn an honest penny. With that said,  Tim talks about several matters, though not all against the grain: missing someone in Bitter Morning Taste, and being happy with doing what you want (‘I Could Have Been A Dancer‘/’Before It All Ends‘). The raw voice of Tim also underlines the emotions in the songs. That you can hear he is Dutch by his accent is detail, and after a few songs you won’t even really notice it anymore.

Accompanied by a full band for recording really worked out for this record. You can hear they really thought every song through; which instrument to take the lead, and ofcourse which instruments to use per song. There’s a subtile violin in ‘Dirty Boots‘, a big part for electric guitar in ‘Apologies, I Have Some‘ and more strings again in ‘Bitter Morning Taste‘ . To do ‘Before It All Ends‘ a cappella as the last song is another great decision. It makes you really listen to the lyrics, but also leaves you with the ‘is it already over?’ response after it dies down.

Yes, the duration is barely 25 minutes to start with, but there is a great advantage to that too: you can start the record over again sooner. Because the lyrics are not that hard, the second time you listen to ‘If We Go Down, We Will Go Together’ will be easy to sing along with most of the songs. So go ahead and sing along; we did too.

★★★★★

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