John Adams describes his songs as "emotive and heartfelt narratives woven together as stories."

He began his career busking on the streets before he took a leap of faith and left his job as a math teacher to focus on his career as a touring musician, playing over 200 dates around the UK and Europe in 2017, including several high-profile festival appearances.

You Never Know Who's Listening, an album of one dozen tracks, certainly proves this to have been an inspired decision. The lyrics are well written and his voice is strong and convincing.

A case in point is the track "Things That Make You Beautiful." Although he appears to submerge his voice in multitracking at times, the sentiment comes through loud and strong.

"Dandelion Wishes" is served up twice on the album, once in acoustic and again in a "full" version, and to be candid they sound like two very different songs and as such they are not short changing the purchaser. He does something similar on "See You Again," giving us a full version and then a piano version. (On this occasion I think the full version is superior.)

No doubt recalling his busking origins, he gives a great performance on "The Pavement is My Stage." This is the stand-out track and bodes very well for Adams going forward.

[ visit the artist's website ]