Logan Richard “Character Traits”

Outside Music, 2025

Skilful songwriting and guitar playing come together to make an album that sounds far more seasoned than a sophomore release it has any right to.

To quote Logan Richard, each song on his second full-length album “Character Traits” “touches on a different genre and lyrical theme”, but if you had to assign it an overriding motif, it would be the Canadian working his way through the ever difficult trials and tribulations of youth. The music industry, however, is something he finds much easier to navigate since he was on the stage at just 12 years old, gigging alongside his maternal fiddle-playing family members on his native Prince Edward Island. That backbone of experience has set him up well, not just as a fine songwriter but also as an exceptional guitar player, and both those skills are showcased to the max on “Character Traits”.

Richard’s voice is so smooth that it arguably veers into R&B at times. “We can only go up from here / Don’t look now what’s in the rearview mirror,” he croons soothingly on the acoustic ‘Up From Here’, “Don’t look back, don’t reprise / Don’t let your dust get in your eyes / I know we can only go up from here.” ‘Feels This Way’ evokes the dreamy, blues pop of John Mayer more with each fancy flourish of the guitar as the lyrics speak of the everyday anxiety of meeting a partner’s parents for the first time. There’s a palpable restless uncertainty on ‘The Grass Is Blue (Everywhere I Go)’ as Richard jogs onwards on a journey with an unknown destination: “Yeah it’s true what they say / It’s greener when you get away / I just wanna feel it standing in one place.”

“Blue jeans from the Goodwill”, a hand-me-down corduroy jacket and a “sundress and some hightops” come together to represent the sweetness of new, young love on the cheerful ‘Feel the World Spinning’. “If you fall down, if you’re going crazy / You got my number in your Rolodex baby,” Richard offers on ‘Rolodex’, an easy pop song that’s a hit of nostalgia for anyone old enough to remember flipping through the rotating cards in search of someone’s digits. On ‘If You’re Gonna Change Your Mind’, Richard slips into slinky soul, giving us glimpses of an impressive falsetto and even more impressive guitar solos.

“I don’t wanna talk right now / I think that we’ve run out of words,” opens ‘Junk Drawer’, its bright piano giving echoes of Ben Folds. “I don’t know anything about you anymore / We fell into the junk drawer,” Richard admits sadly of the doomed relationship, noting that everything in the junk drawer ends up “Gone like a whisper in the wind”. After beginning with a brief cacophony of strings, ‘Someday’ moves into something slower, more stripped back and meditative as Richard candidly admits that he is still searching for the illusive answers in life: “It won’t be today / It won’t be tomorrow / But someday I’ll fly / Someday I’ll find what I’m looking for.”

The title track, where Richard lays himself bare lyrically, was written in a single sitting and surprisingly, was the last song he ended up writing for the album, and it, in his words, “tied everything together.” “If I could be anything / I’d still be me,” he concludes at the song’s end, and the fact that he wants to remain who he is is undoubtedly a good thing. “Character Traits” is a great snapshot of who he is now and the excellent work he’s capable of, so going forward, let’s hope that he not only stays true to himself but also that he affords us the chance to go on the journey with him as he moves on from the difficulties of youth towards the trials of adulthood and beyond.

7/10
7/10

 

About Helen Jones 165 Articles
North West based lover of country and Americana.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments