Good Morning

The idea of music suiting a particular time of day and setting is immensely appealing to me. I’m here now, it’s hot, and the cicadas on ‘Midnight in Queensland’, a track towards the end of Good Morning*, blend in with those outside my room as lo-fi piano trickles from my speakers, emerging sepia-toned from somewhere distant. This is the project of Ohad Rein. A tinge of country runs throughout, lackadaisical, with a spot of The Beatles, too. The general feel sometimes veers a little too much towards Ben Harper’s end of alternative rock; inflected with a little country, a little soul, it’s all very appealing. I do actually think *Good Morning is beautiful, despite an obviously recurring chilled out vibe; it’s well balanced, and there’s a clearly realised palette at work that’s dense in parts, with a large range of instruments helping out.

What makes the aesthetic work is that deviations upon it create some brilliant moments, as where it gradually trails off towards the end, like an evening with friends where you listened to a particular album and it became associated with then and there ever since. These are soft songs – some upbeat, some joyous; the best of which feature as it fades, delicately and quite masterfully, really. There are some lovely lyrics, too: dreamy and warm, soaking into the overall tone of what is a very solid album that’s diverse enough to hold your interest, cohesive enough to work regardless of the setting.