More about: Martin Luke Brown

For a moment on Martin Luke Brown’s debut album, we’re given a look behind the curtain at his creative process. Towards the end of ‘grateful’, we can hear him suggest a key change to his collaborators. “Really?” says one person incredulously. “I don’t know if that might take away from…” another starts to argue, before Brown interrupts: “It’ll be sick!” he says, “Fuck it!”.

It’s a delightful little meta-textual moment. I just wish it didn’t feel like one of the only times on the whole record when Brown throws caution to the wind and refuses to do what’s expected of him. 

Following a series of singles and EPs released between 2014 and 2018, then an extended period spent writing for other artists, Martin Luke Brown has finally released his first album. He’s called it damn look at the view !, opting here not only for an all-lowercase approach but also for a quirky space before the exclamation mark – a choice which is as charming as it is grammatically incorrect. 

damn look at the view ! is an album that less wears its influences on its sleeve and more has them tattooed all over its entire torso. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it does mean that Brown sounds like he reaches the end of the album without quite finding his own voice. And he reaches the end of the album quickly too – with only eight tracks, one of which is a sub-two-minute intro, it feels a little like it’s all over before it’s begun. 

The two tracks that open the record – the titular intro and lead single ‘grateful’ – appear to take their cues from late-era Coldplay. I don’t have a problem with this because, for my sins, I love late-era Coldplay. In fact, ‘grateful’ is without question the best track on the record. It’s dance-in-the-kitchen, song-of-the-summer stuff and I’m well and truly here for it. In fact, I spent an entire tube journey from Brixton to Tufnell Park just listening to this song.

The problems start to arise when Brown stops paying homage and starts to impersonate other artists – penultimate track ‘it gets better’ is modelled on a Sam Fender song, while album closer ‘see you later x’ approximates Lewis Capaldi. These two acts being perhaps the UK’s most successful non-Sheeran singer-songwriters, you can see why Brown might want to mimic their shtick, but it all feels a little too close for comfort. It’s unfortunate too that this pair of songs close the record – it means that Brown starts the album all-guns-blazing but has retreated into pastiche by the end. 

"In many ways, this debut record feels like the first step in a process of self-discovery..."

The good news is that Martin Luke Brown knows how to write a great song. His time writing for other artists has evidently helped him to hone his own songwriting, and a lot of the tracks here are earworms, but more than that they’re well-crafted and well-realised. The production is meticulous, the arrangements are satisfyingly varied, and it’s clear a lot of care has been taken here with every creative choice. Banjos, drum machines, birdsong, childhood home recordings, addictive bass guitar hooks, stylish piano parts, and delicately arranged vocal harmonies are all deployed across the runtime. On a purely sonic level, it’s a feast for the ears.

On a lyrical level, we’re looking at more of a mixed bag. It’s clearly a very personal set of songs for Brown – the album starts with him opening up about his mental health, then we touch on topics including his long-term relationship, his connection to childhood, and the art of saying goodbye. In the press release for the record, Brown says “Each song is like a journal entry of a specific time in my life - it gets pretty deep at times - but ultimately the feeling I want to evoke is that life really can be simple and we should squeeze the juice out of every moment.”  And I believe him – although the lyrics sometimes don’t land, you can’t fault his honesty and vulnerability here. The album sees Brown stopping to take stock of his own life. “Stop climbing the mountain” he says on the title track, “damn, look at the view”. 

This is a sentiment applicable to most artists, but Brown’s lyrics are admittedly at their best when they’re specific and quotidian. References to a kiss on a kitchen counter on New Years’ 2017, or his sister who moved briefly to London before quickly tiring of it and returning to the north, or his ability to still remember his family’s landline phone number. The most endearing track for this is ‘Elsie’ which acts as a loving if slightly tongue-in-cheek ode to his hometown of Leicester (‘LC’). 

Here and there, he crosses the line from sentimental into sickly, but most of the time he gets away with it. On ‘love is a black hole !’ when he sings “When I say a bit I mean fuckin’ forever, you’re everything to me but whatever”, it’s admittedly difficult not to smile. Nevertheless, it has to be said that for every inspired and tattooable line like “The answer to all the big shit is hidden in all the small print”, there’s a platitudinous truism like “If I’m gonna die, I might as well fuckin’ try to live my life”. 

damn, look at the view ! is an album packed with great ideas. Perhaps Brown has borrowed a few too many of them from his contemporaries, but never so many that it obscures his artistry entirely. In many ways, this debut record feels like the first step in a process of self-discovery. After all, Brown has spent the last five years out of the spotlight, so it’s no wonder that defining his own voice hasn’t been a straightforward task. Brown admits this himself: “I’m what I am just the son of a flawed man/still tryna figure it out at 27” he sings on ‘Elsie’, and it’s not a difficult lyric to relate to. When we inevitably hear from the singer-songwriter again, I’ll be excited to check back in on where his journey of self-discovery has taken him. Until then, I’ll be listening to ‘grateful’ on repeat.

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More about: Martin Luke Brown