Singles

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Call Me Ishmael/I Spy

Bill Cummings 10/07/2006

Rating: 4/5

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly is 19-year-old Sam Duckworth, a talented multi-instrumentalist, a modern day one man band, armed with a laptop and a bashed up acoustic guitar. "Oh no! Not another singer songwriter" I hear you cry. But don't smack the James Blunt-shaped panic button just yet: Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly is unique. A nuanced vocalist (whose emo leanings are overplayed), a crafty self-aware lyricist, and a talented tunesmith, soon you will be hearing a lot about Mr Duckworth. He could yet be Britain's answer to Bright Eyes. At times he displays the same angst ridden anguish and musical invention that's often whirring around Oberst mind, but crucially he has that individuality, that use of expression that makes his songs speak to you like perfectly formed sketches.
His debut major label release is a double A side featuring the tracks 'Call Me Ishmael' and 'I-spy'.

'Call Me Ishmael' is a delightfully tuneful ditty, backed by glitchy beats and delicately-placed horns, its an empowering call to arms: against alienation of the 9-5 grind ("You are not your job/You are not the clothes you wear/ you are the words believe your mouth so speak up speak up now/Each one of us looking for meaning in soul destroying tasks"), it's the musical equivalent of opening a window on a grey office and letting the sunlight stream in.

'I Spy' if anything is even better, stark guitar lines, sedate, barely-noticeable strings, apt harmonic backing and a deceptively brilliant, self referencing lyric about Get Cape's own unique brand of songwriting, the push and pull that exists between pleasing himself and the audience. ("It doesn't matter that this song has a simple tune/Even though it's not what I'm supposed to do.")

If he can continue to match this standard of work, Get Cape. Wear Cape Fly will soon be carving out a niche as an imaginative, multi-talented, multi-faceted songwriter of the kind that Britain hasn't produced of late. Buy his debut EP, watch him put on his imaginary musical cape and fly to new brightly coloured musical playfields.