'Drowning in the Shallow' Combines Storytelling, Social Commentary

Too often, the album is a place where singles wait to be released and B-sides go to die. Very rarely does an album tell a story, or offer real insight into the artist’s world. Creating a narrative on an album is a lost art.

At the risk of sounding a little dismissive, when a musician doesn’t really have a story to tell (just a record to sell), the album stops being a work of art and just becomes a product. 

But when a record actually tells a moving and coherent story, then it can become a piece of art far more powerful than simply notes and words on a page.

So it is with Andy Flannagan’s new album, Drowning in the Shallow.