All the Little Lights is a folk-rock independent album composed and sang by street and independent musician Mike Rosenberg (aka Passenger).
Music, like Poetry, is something that it is always very personal. You like it or not. It does speak to you or it doesn't. It does touch you or it doesn't. All the Little Lights is an album that directly speaks to me.
Contemporary pop-rock music is so empty of personal experiences, so affected by musical mannerisms, so politically correct, or politically incorrect by clichés, so over-marketed and overproduced that one gets surprised at finding All the Little Lights -an independent basic album- topping the charts in Europe, America and Australia.
All the Little Lights has little instrumentation and basic musical arrangements, with a predominance of guitars, violins and drums, very acoustic at times. The music is very catchy and cheery; a downside for an independent album, I think, which, in a way, explains its international success. However, the melodies per se aren't what make you listening to the album the second, third or tenth time. You will listen to it because of the lyrics, and because of Rosenberg's charming voice and honest performance.
All the Little Lights is an poignant album about love and lack of love, dreams and hopes, passions and disliking, failure and success. Rosenberg displays his wounds and flaws with emotional maturity, self-acceptance, lack of self-pity and lots of wit. Rosenberg has written wise witty lyrics that say something about him, his life, how he sees life, and who he is.
I absolutely love the lyrics of Things that stop you dreaming, Let her go, All the Little Lights, and I Hate (the latest recorded live in London). However, all the lyrics are great.
All the Little Lights is a good album with excellent lyrics that deserves the praise and success it has.
I hate the cover of the CD. I think it doesn't make any justice to the album.
