David Saw: Broken Down Figure

Coming from the same place as literally hundreds of singer-songwriters, David Saw is best when he is at is most barren. Songs such as “Don’t Call” aren’t the poppy Dylan-meets-Jason Mraz fodder radio playlists yearn for, but it is a gorgeous tune nonetheless. The musician, who has the chops to get his songs across without much padding or layering of sounds, comes to the life on the aptly named “Simple Song” which is quite pleasing and light. The title track has a minimal amount of strings but isn’t anything too distracting to the overall gist of the song as Saw sounds a bit weary in the vein of Ryan Adams or John Mayer without the gloss. However “Buy My Record” is an up-tempo but rather bland attempt at pop folk. A song like this would be the type which might prevent people from purchasing the record. Fortunately, the gentle, summery, Jack Johnson-leaning “Savannah’s World” atones for the previous screw up. Meanwhile “All At Sea” recalls some of the best work Ron Sexsmith did early in his career. Saw commands your attention and fortunately for the listener it’s not difficult trying to meet him at least halfway, especially on the melodic “Some Love” which is about, gasp, a person’s broken heart. And if Saw’s performance thus far was still up in the air for the cynics, even The Beatles-que “Someone’s Gonna Love You” is bound to warm you up to Mr. Saw.