The Rock and The Tide is the third album released by singer/songwriter Joshua Radin. While his previous two albums featured the quiet, soft-spoken tracks Radin is known for, The Rock and The Tide attempts to depart from this image and establish itself with a more upbeat sound.
Radin didn’t always plan on being a singer. He attended Northwestern University, and it wasn’t until he wrote a song called “Winter” for his good friend and actor Zach Braff, that his career in music began. His first album was released in 2007, and Braff insisted they use Radin’s material on his TV show Scrubs.
I’ve been a Radin fan since the beginning, and I owe that to Braff. Besides his well-known role as J.D. on Scrubs, Braff is also known for producing the Grammy award- winning Garden State soundtrack. When Radin first started out, Braff posted about him on his Myspace. Since then, Radin’s music has been in television shows like Grey’s Anatomy, House, and Brothers and Sisters, and on soundtracks for movies like Catch and Release, The Nanny Diaries and The Last Kiss (a soundtrack also produced by Braff).
Most classify Radin’s music as indie or folk, while Itunes defines him as a singer/songwriter. Radin’s quiet, gentle style distinguish him from other artists in his genre. Critics describe him as a modern-day Simon and Garfunkel.
After two albums of what many describe as “whisper rock,” The Rock and The Tide wanders from what Radin fans are used to. This is something we all know that he needed to experiment with. Radin is known for his soothing music, but it’s nice to see tracks with more pep to them because it shows his range.
Some of Radin’s best tracks have been the ones where he pushed the envelope of the “whisper rock.” “Sky,” a duet on his second album Simple Times, is a track that does so perfectly. In fact, there are several tracks on Simple Times that this applies to. It only makes sense that with each successive album Radin would try to reinvent himself a little bit. But the upbeat tracks in The Rock and the Tide lack what those on the album before it had. The first tracks of the album are upbeat, but as the album progresses; the final few revert to the style of old-school Radin. The album is less cohesive than it’s predecessor, Simple Times.
Article comments
1 - Zed Tourmoche
Joshua Radin is one of those musical Artists who come along every once in a while within each successive generation. Each Artist brings his/her own 'pure' and 'authentic' forms of self-expression of emotions tickled by the use of simple instruments and uncomplicated arrangements and instrumentation that touch the heart/s of some/many listeners with the fluidity of a serene,clear,calm,and fresh water stream.Artists of this calibre tend to grow gradually, and continue to produce more and more beautiful music thus developing an almost 'spiritual' and 'abstract' friendship with their followers. Joshua in my opinion is one such musical artist with a purity of heart and mind that endears him to many of his fans,INCLUDING MYSELF. I have all three of his albums,and I appreciate/love each and every one of his songs as I fleetingly,or at times constantly,think of a special personal experience that had left some indelible mark in my memory.The irony is that an American Lady-friend introduced me to Joshua's music in 2008,yet despite these two souls' inability to unite due to geographical boundaries,Joshua's music has become the spiritual umbilical cord that keeps many of 'BEAUTIFUL' memories very much ALIVE.Thank you Joshua.
2 - Zed Tourmoche
Musical commentators & critics are entitled to their own views whatever colour such views might be. The fact remains that ALL THAT MATTERS IS THE ARTIST AND HIS/HER SONGS AND THEIR LISTENERS APPRECIATION OF THEIR WORK.