Pop music has washed in neon for the better part of a decade. As 1980s nostalgia surged, artists like the Weeknd, Dua Lipa, and now Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan spiked its momentum through enormous, synth-wrapped hooks and glossy production. What hasn’t yet resurfaced in the mainstream is 1990s and early 2000s pop-rock—something British singer-songwriter Col Gerrard rejuvenates in his self-titled debut collection.
In Col Gerrard, the London-based musician muses tenderly on the mishaps of a love-filled life. His melodies and performances grapple not with bitterness, but with the gentle, melancholic residue that often lingers in the heart following broken connections. Gerrard’s sound is characterized by guitar- and piano-forward textures, bright melodies lifted on pop-rock platforms, and themes of life and love that anyone can relate to, recalling the era of bands like Lifehouse, Keane, and Matchbox Twenty. Once, this brand of emotional yet accessible pop thrived; artists like Gerrard may have the power to restore it.
Col Gerrard opens on an instant piano hook in “Come on Over” that establishes the album’s cohesive tone. The warm, hopeful track urges clarity from a lover who the protagonist admits makes no sense to him. “Come on over / And say what you wanted / I don’t understand a thing that you say.”
This theme of miscommunication and seeking clear-eyed honesty continues throughout the album, returning immediately in the reflective roadtripper “Sun & Sky”. “Say what’s on your mind / There’s always something there that / Never gives you peace,” Gerrard sings, seeming to want to offer the kind of reassurance his loved one needs. If the people we love don’t articulate their issues, we’re unable to help them—a frequent source of strain in relationships.
”The Waiting Game” sees Gerrard open his inner Third Eye Blind a la “Semi-Charmed Life”. Energetic and delectably 1990s, the rock-infused pop piece wouldn’t have been out of place on the late-20th-century charts.
Tempering this is “Older”. Here, Gerrard relaxes into a deeper emotional current and lets it carry him to pensive shores. “Another start again / Another broken friend / You say it’s over / And it’s no good getting older,” sings Gerrard. “Another small affair / You say that you don’t care…” Gerrard’s observations recall the agony one might feel in a “situationship” —a “small affair” we convince ourselves doesn’t matter—or another inherently painful entanglement.
Age does not guarantee wisdom, nor clarity. For some, getting older is merely a numerical mark etched upon the endless ruler of time. It’s in “Older” that Gerrard reminds this Generation Z’er of her childhood in the noughties; I half-expected the “Do, do, do, do” from Howie Day’s “Collide” to emerge in the chorus.
”Nowhere” captures another difficult feeling: the helplessness of watching someone you love coast through an existence rather than carve out a life for themselves. “Once upon a time / The world was here for you,” Gerrard points out. “How do people lose themselves in this way?” The tragedy of many a wasted life lies in that question.
Col Gerrard’s debut leads with six sonically strong tracks. Producer Chris Potter’s polish enhances them, but it’s Gerrard’s voice—which alone could carry a career—and his intuition for simple, pleasant instrumentation that bolsters the album’s first half. By the second one, though, momentum sputters into fatigue, with a few exceptions.
Gerrard’s lyrics overall don’t offer much to hold onto, either, which is an ironic misfortune for an album concerned with communication. Their universality is simply too broad or too narrow to allow for emotional anchoring. If Gerrard can focus his gaze and get more specific in his lyricism, the communication he’s seeking in this album’s relationships will sharpen in his music. Romance is risky, and listeners want to know exactly what those risks cost—and taught—an artist.
Debuts are seldom perfect, and it is promise, not overnight mastery, that’s a fairer measurement of their success than the absence of flaws. Col Gerrard possesses the skill and musicality to aim higher with his craft; he needs only to aim deeper to extract his full potential.