G Tom Mac: Thou Shalt Not Fall Review

When looking through possible CD’s that would spark my interest I stumbled across G Tom Mac’s Thou Shalt Not Fall. I dug a little deeper into his bio/press kit and witnessed a quote from Roger Daltrey of The Who. Daltrey said, "Gerard (aka G Tom Mac) seems to always have his finger on the pulse of whats about to happen musically, and an incredible amount of strength in his writing and voice." Whether or not he has his pulse on what is about to happen musically, I cannot say being that I’ve only listened to this album, but Daltrey was certainly right about the strength in both his song writing and voice.

The album opens up with the dark "Cry Little Sister", a song featured on the Lost Boys Soundtrack. In case you were wondering how he could have written a song for a movie released in 1987, G Tom Mac has been writing songs for TV and movies for quite some time, not to mention many of his songs have been covered by other artists, Thou Shalt Not Fall is his second full length album. "Cry Little Sister" along with many of the other songs on the album are pushing an almost industrial sound, similar to that of Nine Inch Nails with its emphasis on electronic sounds. As Daltrey stated, Mac is a stellar songwriter, and every song is immediately accessible. The hooks are strong (i.e. "Box of Fantasy"), the heartfelt emotion is always present (i.e. "You Are"), the fun grooving rhythms are around for the majority of the album (i.e. "Secret of Oz") and it was very well produced.

Considering such a large amount of his songs have been covered by other artists can only attest to his masterful song writing ability. One may think that because so many of his songs have been covered, he might not have the ability to perform them on his own. This is far from true, his vocal ability is very impressive, and sticking with the Nine Inch Nails relation earlier, is similar to Trent Reznor’s. Another aspect which makes his songs just that much better is his powerful lyrics.

While many may not know it, G Tom Mac is a veteran at crafting an emotionally powerful song. The strength of the album isn’t vaguely spread out throughout, instead it continues from one song to the next. Mac’s album is a refreshing listen - both original and dynamic.

Grade: B+