Tommy Simms - Then The Archers Bowed and Broke Their Bows - CD Review

Tommy Simms
Then The Archers Bowed and Broke Their Bows
8/10

Man, someone REALLY enjoyed their parents’ record collection, didn’t they? That someone was Tommy Simms, vocalist for Win Win Winter and the scruffier of the Simms siblings involved in Automatic Loveletter. His solo release separates himself from the Warped Tour crowd and finds himself much more at home at Woodstock. The original one, you know, the one with the metric tons of marijuana, topless hippies and free love. Not the one with fucking Metallica, riots and rapes.

I’ve been sitting at my computer, beer in hand, for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to pigeonhole ol’ Tommy boy into some clever little quip, but for the life of me, can’t do it. Running a gamut of styles from hipster-fare, such as “Here In The Horse’s Heart” (bonus points for the alliteration, by the way) to the more fist-pumping/booty shaking “Baker Avenue”, Simms even provides a slow jam that’s as enjoyable for Skynard fans as it is for, well, everyone else.

While some of my highest praise lends itself to the sounds of early rock inspiration apparent throughout the debut album, that’s also where my only bitch lies. The production values are consistent with the equipment from the same era. The vocals go from “garage-rock” to “I’m recording into a modified Mr. Mike.” Hopefully, this is simply because he is just getting his solo career set, or he developed a distaste for excessive production. Either way, I look forward to a better balance of recording on his next record.