Review of: 'Runaway' by Passenger

It's been too long since we've talked about Passenger. I'm very aware that I'm (very) late to the party on this one, it came out in August after all, but I did want to discuss it at some point. Going back to my review of Passenger's seventh studio album 'Young As The Morning, Old As The Sea', I can easily see that it's not a great review. After all, I didn't really criticise, and yet ended up rating the album abnormally high. The album is only decent at best, with the brighter, more reflective moments being the most revealing and the most interesting. A very light 3 / 5 at best, if that, certainly not the 4 / 5 I gave it at the time. I was planning on covering his follow up album 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf' when it was released a year later, but on account of it not being interesting whatsoever, I decided to pass on that one.

But, a few listens through 'Runaway' convinced me that it was going to be worth covering, mainly because, for the most part, it's a return to form for Passenger. After two releases that have lacked a lot of meat or anything worth caring about, the introduction of a brighter instrumental pallet, more developed mature song writing, and a performer capable of selling all of it with considerable ease makes for an album that's pretty damn good. And the interesting thing is if you popified the production and writing a bit and gave the album to someone like George Ezra, whose career is built on these kind of songs, some of these songs could be considerable hits.


So, how did we get here? The change in production style is a huge part of all of this. 'Young As The Morning, Old Of The Sea' had the unfortunate tendency to default to much drier, uninteresting tones, or unspectacular arrangements. And while 'Why Can't I Change' could easily fit into this category, more often than we get brighter instrumentals that are just a lot more interesting. 'Ghost Town' and 'To Be Free' might be exceptions to this rule, but both of those songs work in their own subtle way. 'Eagle Bear Buffalo', 'Runaway' and especially 'Let's Go' have a enough unique texture that they work just fine as catchy songs. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have 'Ghost Town' with the more brittle, frail approach in the production that I like a fair bit, and Passenger underplaying in his vocals has always been great, he sounds really good on this album.


Speaking of underplaying, the track 'To Be Free' is the slow piano ballad on this album, and it sounds amazing, and the intense storytelling you get in the lyrics has always been one of Passenger's strengths. But how does the song writing hold up across the rest of the album? It's a bit of a mixed bag. Take 'Why Can't I Change' as a good example of why I don't think the writing entirely works, or is at the very least inconsistent. On the song, Passenger is clearly looking for some form of sympathy for finding it hard to change (and potentially adapt to a changing musical climate that is leaving him behind), but why is it a bad thing that he's not changed? It just seems like a really odd reason why someone would want sympathy.


'He Leaves You Cold' is another example. The way that Passenger is trying to make choices for this girl in who she wants to be with strikes me as a bit presumptive and unkind, even if he tries to use the girl's actions around the other guy to justify his case.


Then you get songs like the non descript, but certainly decent to good songs like 'Let's Go',  'Eagle Bear Buffalo' and 'Runaway' which are all Passenger in a very comfortable lane. But they are nothing in comparison to the best songs here: 'Hell Or High Water' and 'To Be Free'. The latter is Passenger reflecting on the chaos of a breakup and wondering whether it was simply fate taking its course, or if they could have somehow prevented it and spared themselves the pain. 'To Be Free' meanwhile is about Passenger's farther, originally from Vineland, New Jersey, and his journey that ends with him meeting his mother in nineteen-eighty-one. A touching story that grows all the more personal when the perspective is shifted in the song's dying moments and Passenger begins singing about himself instead of his farther. A great moment.


This and the closing track 'Survivors' are great moments of well framed reflection, with the closing track showing Passenger seeing everyone around him in a constant state of panic, and wondering if there is anyone else who is content with life, like he is.


But overall, I don't think Passenger will ever top 'Wicked Man's Rest' or 'All The Little Lights', but this is most certainly a return to form and I can certainly respect that. More of this please Mike. We need more song writers like you.


3.5 / 5


Best Songs: 'Hell Or High Water', 'To Be Free', 'Survivors', 'Eagle, Bear Buffalo'


Worst Songs: 'Why Can't I Change', 'He Leaves You Cold'