Evermore Album: “Real Life”

Evermore just keeps getting better with each album. I loved Dreams and have given it to friends and family for gifts. When Real Life came out I was again blown away. My favorite songs on the album are Running, My Guiding Light, The Only One I See, Unbreakable, Never Let You Go. Actually, I can't choose a favorite. They are all so wonderful. I would definately recommend this album and have already started giving it as gifts to family and friends. What better gift than to share the music you love.

Evermore is an exceptionally good band, and Real Life is their second studio album, released in July 2006. Comprising brothers Jon, Peter and Dann Hume, Evermore hails from New Zealand's North Island, and has been very successful in Australia and New Zealand. Their music deserves to reach a worldwide audience. All three brothers are songwriters, and though eldest brother Jon does most of the singing, it is possible to distinguish the three voices at work here.

Real Life opens with a powerful and positive title tune, which might be about waking up from one's Dreams and "stepping into the light" of one's adult Real Life. It segues into the hit single Running - an anthemic, confident rock song with a memorable chorus. This song received tons of airplay on Australian radio in 2006, making it one of the year's best known pop hits. Current single Light Surrounding You is a melodic winner that has gone even further up the chart and is sitting this week at #1 on the Australian singles chart. My favourite song on here is the fantastic The Great Unknown. The guitar sound on this track is reminiscent of U2, and, honestly , this is one of the best songs I heard in years, and I played this track heaps of times in August 2006 after buying my copy of the CD. Some slower songs like Afloat are balanced by loud , guitar based rock like Unbreakable and fine songs like My Guiding Light, and there are some melancholy moments too. Overall though, this album is catchier even than Evermore's 2004 debut CD Dreams, and a little more optimistic and "mainstream" in tone.

I saw Evermore in concert here in Hobart, Tasmania in September 2006, and can confirm that they are a great live act. The Hume brothers, whom I briefly met and talked to after the show, are talented and pleasingly down-to-earth about their music , and deserve a long and successful career. Definitely go and buy a copy of Real Life !!

Highly Recommended for rock and pop fans . 5 Stars from me

They are relatively unknown in the U.S., but are an amazing band made up of three brothers, Jon Hume, Peter Hume, and Dann Hume. Jon does most of the singing and his voice is so distinctive from anything else out there. It saddens me that they are not on the radio more in the U.S. Listening to this album is pure pleasure from start to finish.

My new husband first got me on to this band who I love now. The song from this latest album 'Never Let You Go' was our wedding dance (be sure to check out the awesome video too). The whole album is beautiful and uplifting. I also love the lyrics to 'Running'. It's a good album to do long drives or chill out on a sunday.

The sunny disposition of "Real Life" came as a bit of a shock the first listen through. The minor chords and deep moods from their previous album, "Dreams", has been replaced with optimistic harmony. I miss the emotional wailing that brought such honesty to their previous work. Their angst is mysteriously lacking through most of "Real Life" and only makes an appearance in latter tracks like "The Only One I See". While not as storytelling, "Real Life" does have memorable tracks and a much more polished pop sound. Evermore will forever remind me of The Verve... and that's a good thing.