Straight outta Stouffville comes Peter M Mahahead with his 17 track album “Autobiography of a Faker”, this is perhaps one of the longest albums/releases we’ve reviewed thus far. It’s a very sombre album with some nice pick-me-ups around the halfway mark. We’re going to be brief here as we don’t want to spoil this album for you, it is 17 songs after all. Anyway! Without further ado here’s our review:

1. “The Faker”

This track is a very interesting piece, it has a kind-of musical theatre vibe to it. Some nice vocal melodies to compliment this track.

2. “Friends and Lovers”

The guitar used on this track has a very nice, clean, tone – it’s backed up by a very melodica bass track as well. Very good vocals on this one, there’s definitely a hint of Ivan Doroschuk (from Men Without Hats) but here Peter sings much better. Sorry Ivan. So much funk is going on with this track, nice.

3. “Sonnet Variations”

The melodic guitar track compliments the vocals very well, there’s some interestingly placed synth with some electric drums – a great touch. Overall this is a very interesting track – the song concludes calmly.

4. “Trendsetter”

Peter certainly had us at first but this track turned out very nice as it went along. Unexpectedly groovy! This is certainly our favourite of the album.

5. “Integral Song Theory La La La”

When this song started we thought this was some slowed down version of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” – oh how we were wrong! This song is brilliantly composed with great bass, guitar and keyboard accompaniment with a very excellent sax solo included.

6. “The Seer”

Peter demonstrates his guitar playing here, nicely done. Vocals appear to be at the back of the mix which is laying background to the guitar rather than the other way around, very ambitious. This track begins the more Sombre feel of the album.

7. “Zooey Wrote The Letter”

There’s a good element of harmonica in this, well pulled off – the guitar and piano work well together. The song feels like a tribute to Bob Dylan’s earlier work.

8. “Starving Footprints”

This is a track that Bill Wurtz should seriously consider covering. Very nice, and well pulled off.

9. “The Playwright Oscar”

Very similar to Track 7, really quite a serious track and quite low-profile in terms of the vocals. Following along the sombre feel of this part of the album.

10. ” The Bird of Paradise”

22 seconds of a nice orchestral-esque piece. A little break from the sombre mood.

11. “The Politician Anne”

Sounds of war at the beginning, the track is definitely about war – or what we can make from the vocals, mentions of Gaza Strip and some anecdote about cancer. Perhaps a commentary of war?

12. “The Painter Vincent”

We weren’t really sure about this track, it seemed to follow along the theme and indeed sounded similar to other tracks on this album.

13. “The Poet Leonard”

A very nice pick-me-up at the start, really a nice draw in and then it drops off. A nicely mixed track with various instruments panning around your speakers!

14. “The Writer Gertrude”

Again, following along the exact compositions of the last few songs, it’s a sombre one! The difference is a theme recurring around five dollars.

15. “The Novelist Ernest”

So a slight variation here, there is some kind of pick-me-up in this track after the last few tracks. There’s a very grunge-kinda vibe that is in this track. The middle of the song features a well put together piano solo.

16. “The Narrator Virginia”

This track goes straight back to the sombre feel of the previous tracks.

17. “The Sophist Francis”

The final track, it just has the same feel as the previous few songs. That’s all we can really say.

Thanks to Peter for sending us his album and the artwork for use as part of this review! This was certainly one of the longer and more ambitious series of works we’ve reviewed.

You can purchase his music here, you can find him on Spotify and YouTube. Follow him on Twitter.

Autobiography of a Faker was released on July 22nd 2017 by Peter M Mahahead.