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You & Me makes sure his six-string gifts remain in the forefront of the listener's mind. And while the reigning mood of the album is one of warm, Southern California breezes and sun-splashed sojourns to the Pacific Ocean, other influences pop up along the way, particularly a fondness for British folk-rock.
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He and his accompanists perform perfectly, with Barker’s elegant leads being one of, rather than the exclusive, focal point.
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This uniformity of tone and tempo understandably causes You & Me to wilt through its middle stretches despite its relatively brief running time.
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Barker has a good voice that is well-suited to this kind of material and a good sense of how to accompany his voice with his guitar. The problem, then, is mostly that the songwriting just isn’t very strong.
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Many of the songs end up sounding alike, and the somewhat dreamlike lyrics can lose you in a maze of psuedo-poetry, but You & Me is a solid debut. Barker’s strengths are, therefore, those of the record: simple guitar and an often golden voice.