Anyone who has met Australian singer/songwriter Tim Reid or listened to his addictive music knows that he occupies a magical space. A space where a distinctive blend of unassuming flair and intense ambition collide to produce an artist who is at once approachable and intelligent. Tim Reid\'s music is characterised by beautiful, stirring melodies and an easy openness in his lyrics that only comes with genuine poise.

Tim released his first EP, Catherine, in 1998 which received local and national airplay and which also prompted him to begin showcasing his talents at live gigs. A song he recorded for ABC radio, World That\'s Made For Two (featured on his current album) was play-listed on affiliated AM stations and has since maintained a constant level of airplay.

Tim has focussed (in his own endearingly disorganised but secretly exacting way) on becoming a mature songwriter and performer, and he has just emerged from the studio with his first full-length album. Recorded with the help of Arts Victoria and released by Popboomerang records, Any Given Day features the eclectic talents of Ross Calia, Susie Ahern, Marcus Goodwin and Matty Vehl (Ice Cream Hands), Marty Brown (Art of Fighting, Sodastream) and jazz artist Tim Wilson. Brimming with real human emotion, it explores themes of love, loss, and all things in between, weaving familiar sketches, soothing philosophies and fresh ideas into delicate but potent songs that are easy on the ear and reassuringly catchy.

Tracklisting:
Two Left Feet
We All Need
Love With You
Any Given Day
Air With Words
Home Movies
World That\'s Made For Two
He\'s Counting Days
Unstable
Lily
Me And You

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Tim Reid is an Australian singer-songwriter making a bit of a name for himself in his native land. After recording various songs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Reid eventually caught the attention of Popboomerang Records, a native label that offers some of the sweetest pop Down Under, or up over for that matter. The album, which features members of various groups not well known on North American shores (Icecream Hands, Art of Fighting), instantly recalls Neil Finn or the Finn Brothers on the soft, acoustic guitar driven "Two Left Feet". His vocals just above a whisper but as smooth as you couldn't even come close to imagining, Reid mix just a bit of his Beatles influence within his own strengths. The almost ethereal harmonies in the distance give it a spacey, Byrds-like flavor as well. People like Danny Wilde and the Rembrandts or Michael Penn are also fair comparisons on "We All Need", which has a hint of piano and a vast, wide-open Americana style to it. The ease he brings to each song is quite pleasing, as if he just conjured the tune up on a whim and it happened to work. What is also noticeable is how little of a lilt or accent Reid possesses, just one ambling soft pop nugget after another. One lovable hook appears on "Love with You", a self-explanatory title that has a great hook as Reid mentions Edgar Allan Poe. The handclap also gives it a nice touch without resorting to the party-time, feel-good, sing-along rut some numbers devolve into. The title track keeps the album moving along with accordions and a dreamy, highbrow pop niche. "And now it's been done the surreptitious one saves the day / A cameo in blue with lines better than you turns the stage lights off", he sings while strumming his guitar.

Reid excels at the sort of tunes that are perfect for summer sunsets or walks in the park, especially on the adorable "Air with Words", a number performed on piano that recalls the late Elliott Smith and his pragmatic lullabies and touches on "dizzying heights forging a future on false sentiments". Thus far, Reid doesn't go for a large, lush orchestral setting to get his songs across, but he comes close during the song's middle section and conclusion. He chooses to elongate the track however as it ventures just over the five-minute mark. "Home Movies" is softer and even more delicate than the last track, a combination of guitar, piano, and Reid gliding over both by the skin of his teeth. It sounds fuller for the first time, bordering on radio-friendly pop. Not to say these others aren't radio-friendly, but there is more of a hook to this slow-building, saxophone-tinged ditty.

Reid probably gets sick to death of the comparisons to Finn and his style, but listening thus far, it's extremely difficult to think of anyone that comes even remotely close. This is exemplified on the lovely, mid-tempo "World That's Made for Two", a tune that sounds a bit like "She Will Have Her Way" from Finn's Try Whistling This. It's also the first instance where Reid rocks out a bit further than usual, with better than expected results. To sound like him and to perfect the same mould of songwriting are two different things, but Reid is able to dole out just as many memorable, witty pop narratives as anyone out there on the market today. The lithe "He's Counting Days" brings things back to what he considers normal, showing his strengths as a kindergarten-like guitar chord is repeated. Vocally, he nails it, but there isn't that much here that he hasn't done earlier. The last couple of songs, including "Lily", are just as lush and precious as anything else here. Why this man hasn't become more recognized is baffling, but hopefully he won't quit anytime soon.

www.popmatters.com
9 June 2004

If you look up the word “delicate” in your dictionary, it wouldn’t be surprising if a photo of the cover of Any Given Day appears right next to it. The debut album by this Australian fellow is utterly beautiful, and although its center is very soft it carries a kind of poignance not often found in music of this ilk. Comparisons to Neil Finn are inevitable because of the geographic proxmity and because Finn and Reid share both vocal and facial similarities, but one can also hear shades of Elliott Smith, along with the softer side of The Grapes Of Wrath. Most of the songs on Any Given Day begin only with Reid and his acoustic, but then almost surreptitiously build until before you know it there’s a rainbow of sound. The best of the lot include the soft ballads “Air With Words” and “Lily,” the image-filled “World That’s Made For Two,” “Love With You,” which has some striking chord changes, and the gorgeous “He’s Counting Days”. Any Given Day is the perfect Sunday morning album, but is also wonderful for those quiet, romantic Saturday nights.

I really wanted to like this Australian singer/songwriter. His pretty, lush folk-pop is chock full of catchy melodies, rich, creamy chord changes and the occasional attention-grabbing couplet like "You dressed in white / playing piano to my out-of-tune guitar". "We All Need", a Beatlesque hymn wrapped up in pounding pianos, Hammond organ and a bevy of bell-like guitars, could almost be a Jon Brion production. On "Love With You", the slice-of-life "Home Movies" and the quietly beaming title track, Reid proves he's also adept at muted, McCartney-like restraint. This all sounds promising, yet I'm still having trouble getting worked up about him. Maybe it's because his vocals so meticulously resemble Neil Finn's, only less urgent and much sappier. This makes most of his music little more than watered-down Crowded House, and why would anyone want that when Finn's still making decent solo records? As Any Given Day proceeds, Reed starts to rely on the same devices so often that by the time he gets to "Unstable", you wish he'd just stick with a simple guitar-and-voice arrangement instead of shifting from that to a full-blown assembly with strings on almost every song. Reid sounds pleasant and affable enough throughout, but in the end he's more John Denver than Lennon.

http://www.splendidezine.com/
Chris Kriofske

The unfortunately phrased press release that accompanied Tim Reid's Any Given Day almost assigned the CD to the charity shop pile, but while "music characterised by an easy openness with genuine poise" hardly invited further investigation, it turns out the songs are actually very likeable.

Once you get past the primetime Crowded House associations there's no getting away from the fact that it's a very strong set of foot-tappin', heavy melodic pop songs.

Mostly acoustic, but with some sophisticated and rich accompaniment, songs like "We All Need", "Air With Words" and "World That's Made For Two" are big on dreamy narrative and full of strident musical twists & turns. It's pretty much a classic singer songwriter album – highly polished and emotionally rich.

Terry Hermon
Bucketful Of Brains Issue 66

It is lovely when it happens, because it’s rare: to play a CD by someone you know absolutely nothing about and by the album’s end feel like you’ve just made a new friend. On this occasion it is “Any Given Day”, the debut album from Melbourne singer-songwriter Tim Reid. From the opening gentle rollick of Two Left Feet, you’re reminded of pop music’s finer exponents – The Beatles, Neil Finn, Glenn Tilbrook and Alex Lloyd’s better moments. Its reinforced in spades by the country tinged We All Need, Love With You (which positively screams “Hit Single”) and the sunny – very Finn – title track. Reid doesn’t look that old, but already he clearly has a talent for penning classics, reclined pop that is sophisticated yet unpretentious. Primarily a home recording, Reid (originally from Sydney) has avoided the temptation to bloat his arrangements with guest musicians (Art Of Fighting and Ice Cream Hands members), thankfully keeping intact the honesty and freshness of this stunning debut. Get yourself acquainted.

Jo Roberts The Age Newspaper Melbourne April 30

The arrival of a package of albums from Popboomerang Records (this week, also Tamas Wells) heralded a trip into the unknown, this Tim Reid debut album being amongst the unfamiliar treasures ensconced in the airmail package.

There is a new generation of (mellow) pop meisters following on from the likes of fellow Antipodean's Crowded House/Finn Bros, and this debut album from Melbournite Tim Reid easily ranks up there with the rest of the contenders for the crown.

'Any Given Day' is full of airy and breezy pop soundscapes, through which Reid seems content to meander slowly, through fields of ambient melodious guitar
pop, without too many of the urgent strides that go with melodramatic heartbreak and angst ridden woes that often accompany the genre. A wonderful unassuming but refulgent pop album. Exponents of this sort of music might find that 'Any Given Day' has more in common with many bands from Reid's geographical neighbour, New Zealand, rather than the current wave of pop minstrels from native Melbourne. No insult intended....

Stu Olds www.musicworkz.co.uk

Just as often its days of quiet agony and long lonely nights, like the story Melbourne-based singer songwriter Tim Reid paints in his album’s magnificent opening track Two Left Feet. It’s one of those songs you hear occasionally that just rings true, as an uncertain lover ponders the future. “there you go/making molehills out of mountains/eight or wrong, I’m the one who’s waiting up for you tonight.”

What’s more, Reid wraps it in a sighing pop tune that could make Neil Finn swoon. And there is plenty more where that came from, mostly based around acoustic guitar or piano, given some delicate colours with sax and electric guitars on elegant pop ballads such as Home Movies.

On Air With Words, which builds from a solitary minor-key piano with glorious banks of harmonies, still finding fresh ways to express those old age longings.

A very Melbourne record, to these ears, even if Reid spent his early years on the Gold Coast. Fans of romantic pop from Simon & Garfunkle to Elliot Smith apply within

Noel Menger- Courier Mail Brisbane

Tim Reid is a singer-songwriter. This makes him one of thousands all over the world. However, what Tim Reid does with the basic tools -- a nice voice, simple yet lush compositions and direct, intelligent lyrics -- makes him one worthy of attention from thousands of music fans all over the world. From time to time, when listening to a record, particularly of a relatively new and unfamiliar artist, there is a moment, almost an epiphany, where you realize that there is something special going on, and that you don't just have a disc, you have music that will be a part of your life.
For example, I can still remember sitting in my dorm room, listening to Chris Isaak's debut record, awed by his stunning vocal on "The Lonely Ones". I was transfixed on that cold and rainy January day, and a bond was formed. Something similar happened to me when listening to the fourth song on the disc, the title cut. The song is one of many that will draw comparisons to Neil Finn, though the tight melody is quite McCartneyesque. It's actually a bit reminiscent of "Another Day", with all the cloying aspects of that song taken out. What's so amazing is how the refrain is taken from that melody, and the melody kind of doubles back on itself. Then the middle eight comes in, and it is Finn worthy. The lovely instrumental break after the second middle eight leads to a quieter reassertion of the melody and then the refrain goes into repeat mode, becoming blissful. This is a song that just keeps getting better and better until the end. So simple, so wonderfully devastating.

Devastated might describe the bloke who's the subject of "World That's Made for Two". This is a song about feeling trapped in a relationship. Reid's lyrics are precise and cutting: "you had big plans about this city you would build for her/they left when the bassinet and baby came between you/spending more time at the office seems the only thing to do." This song doesn't wallow in self-pity or offer an easy way out. It's blithely empathetic. And after detailing the problems, Reid let's the music do the talking, building up to a crescendo, where he tells the guy to "take a look around", with the song negotiating a path that is lovely but uncertain.

"Lily" is someone else who found that she may have given her heart away rashly. In this case, it was for the security of a rich man. She plays her piano, hoping that what she plays will allow her a form of escape. This is a mid-tempo tune, built on layers of acoustic guitars, piano (duh!) and light shuffling drumming. This is one of the songs on the album where Reid really defines himself as someone who is really building on his influences. It's, yet again, effortlessly melodic. But Reid isn't merely trying to be catchy, he's trying to create a mood, a mood that will provide the proper setting for his character. That he does so successfully, while managing to create something so memorable is a mark of a possible master in training.

Not every song is so downcast, but, like Finn, even the unhappier numbers still have a lift and a power to them. Reid's surface charms are obvious. Every song here is instantly likable. What really impresses me is how easily he understands how to match the words to the music to create mood and feeling. Listen to the album opener, "Two Left Feet", and you hear how the words meld with the rhythm of the song, the melody of the song, and compliment it, so that the words and music are inseparable. The other thing that comes through on every song is how he means it. There is no artifice here. He's not selling you his songs. Though by living and breathing them, he is, in fact, really selling the songs. Here is an artist who appears to have a brilliant future.

Mike Bennet (www.fufkin.com)

Those who have spent the past five years trying to fill the holes in their wistful pop-hearts left by the demise of Crowded House would be well advised to pick up “Any Given Day” by local singer/songwriter Tim Reid.

Exuding the same deft pop touch as our beloved world beaters Crowded House, Reid wraps up gentle, tender lyrics in delicate, longing harmonies and light unadorned acoustic melodies.

Kicking off with the sweet Two Left Feet, “Any Given Day” floats by on the strength of Reid’s warm, rich vocals as he sings about the age-old concerns affecting romantics everywhere: love, loss and getting back on your feet after yet another of life’s inevitable setbacks.

Danielle O’Donohue Hit Magazine Herald Sun Melbourne

There is a resistance! Having thought Melbourne had well and truly gone to the rock dogs, we're starting to see a trickling of quieter artists coming out of share houses of the inner North. With bands like Tamas Wells, Mayfly and Gorgeous making understated shuffles around the scene, the debut album from ex-Sydneysider Tim Reid adds to this fine list of fellow alumni.

With a decisively acoustic pop flavour, peppered with dreamy guitar doodling, there is a semblance to the Pete Murray/John Meyer formula here, but Reid's sound is probably more in line with a warmer timbre: perhaps the Neil Finn pop harmonies and ease-by-simplicity that is casually yet concertedly executed. "Air With Words" is pop heaven, blissfully airy and "World That's Made For Two" sounds like a track that Crowded House probably wished they had written. The opener "Two Left Feet" follows in a similar sound, and gently presses a tale of love fractured as "Here you go/making molehills out of mountains/right or wrong/I'm the one who's waiting up for you".

Overall "Any Given Day" is an album ideal for pop escapism. Unobscured and optimistic, Tim Reid has done well crafting poignant and personal songs that paint broad strokes of life experiences that we can all relate to. My kind of album.

Jaz Oz Music Project January 2004

The first album of Tim Reid, the EP “Catherine”, appeared almost six years
ago. At that time his very promising Folkpop songs were still a little raw
and filled with empty gaps. On “Any given day” the Australian refined his
songwriter abilities and filled the gaps with atmosphere. Still there is his closeness to Crowded House and the solo albums of Neil Finn, enriched with a bit of Elliott Smith. Out of this creates Reid with a lot of sensitiveness beautiful songs, that touch and thrill. Tracks like “Two left feet”, “We all need”, “Love with you” or “Me and you”
stand up to the material of Finn or Smith.

9/10 Robert Palley Aargauer Zeitung Newspaper Germany

“Falling so gracefully into an argument … Fill up each sentence/Tales of a love that has gone” Tim Reid is a Melbourne singer-songwriter, but Howzat! was unfamiliar with his work until he had a track, Dancing Girl, on the first Popboomerang compilation, Shake Yer Popboomerang. Now, Tim has signed to the label and they’re releasing his debut album, Any Given Day. It’s a wonderful piece of pop – Neil Finn meets Elliott Smith meets Crosby, Stills & Nash. There are some special guests – including singer Susie Ahern, Art Of Fighting’s Marty Brown, and the Icecream Hands’ Marcus Goodwin – but it’s very much a solo affair, with Tim having done most of the recording at home. The result is an album that’s like catching up with an old friend; there’s an established intimacy and immediately you feel comfortable. The gestation period has been long (he released his first EP, Catherine, in 1998), but this debut is alive on arrival. Live, Tim has a dry, self-deprecating sense of humor (his own label is called Money For Petrol Music). Hopefully, he’ll be more active in 2004.

Jeff Jenkins Inpress Feb 4

It’s usually frustrating when you listen to an album and you instantly think of another (superior) artist. The opening track to Australian singer/songwriter Tim Reid’s first full-length album is Two Left Feet, a sweet, subdued indie song that sounds as if Reid is trying to channel Elliott Smith. That could make for a real disaster, but whether intentional or not, an imitation of Elliott Smith is still pretty great. This feel runs through the entire album, but is especially evident in the first track and All We Need, although Reid lets his Aussie accent show through a bit more in that song. Of course there are the token love songs—Love With You and title track, Any Given Day, and although a considerably slower, moodier feel takes over midway (on Home Movies, He’s Counting Days, Unstable), the pleasant, smooth melodies never disappear.
Any Given Day is an album free of pretensions, and while some amusing pop-culture lyrics are scattered throughout, nothing juts noisily out at you demanding your attention. This isn’t a bad thing though, as like good, sweet indie pop it’s content to patiently play out eleven equally good tracks and let them linger in your mind instead, just for the right amount of time afterwards.
There are also some interesting collaborations on the album (Marcus from Icecream Hands, Marty Brown from Art of Fighting), but it’s Reid’s soft, likable voice that makes this both an instantly accessible and enjoyable listen.

SAMANTHA ALLEMANN Beat Magazine Feb 11 2004-02-11

Finally, the day has come for Tim Reid to prove what was already suggested on his ’98 CD EP and sporadic compilation appearances, which is pure pop brilliance in the silent-is-the-new-loud vein. Though his folky Beatlisms may be judged as derivative, you just can’t resist the stripped-down, mostly acoustic, heartfelt delivery, balancing between the latterdaze and solo John’n’Paul melodic stylings, occasionaly filtered through the “crowdy” ears of Neil Finn, like heard in tracks like “Two left feet” or “World that’s made for two”. The album’s title track or “Love with you” wouldn’t seem out of place among Macca’s acoustic “White album” stuff and therefore, on any of his solo albums, while for instance “He’s counting days” is kinda showing off Lennon’s gentle side, also adding some almost-spiritual feel, as well as some Bacharachian-horns decoration. As a synopsis of “any given day”, and especially this one, listening to “We all need” kinda mixes my feelings while trying to figure out if it’s more John or Paul coming through, or maybe it’s a perfect example of an imaginary REAL collaboration?
Anyway, when it comes to Beatles reminiscings, I’d take this one on “any given day”!

Goran Obradovic / POPISM radio show; Serbia & Montenegro & www.torpedopop.com

As the beautifully warming throes of opener Two Left Feet come trickling out, you know this one has the possibility of being something special.
Soft, caressing melodies, unassuming airs and a wonderful fresh flavour that washes over you in the most inviting of ways…such is Tim Reid’s magical weave.
We All Need is just as gentle, with faint echoes of early Alex Lloyd, swirling keys, and honeyed rhythms that just peal off so effortlessly.
Love With You puts the kettle on, invites you in for a cuppa and proceeds to unravel its sweet love-lorn tale, ahead of the title track’s soft whispers and mellow airs.
And so it is the entire way through. The gorgeous World That's Made For Two, the dripping sad beauty of He's Counting Days. Melodies that swim into your senses and tickle all the fuzzy bits, spill their tales so seamlessly and shuffle off into the setting sun without the slightest air of pomp, pretense or impurity.
The perfect kick-back!
Mark Fraser www.redbackrock.comMark Fraser www.Redbackrock.com

Aussie pop singer-songwriter Tim Reid is firmly of the Paul McCartney School. With his romantic melodies and poignant sentimentalities, not to mention his focus on rustic folksy elements, his pleasing easy listening style bears certain similarities with Eric Carmen, David Gates, Eric Stewart, Glenn Tillbrook and most significantly, Neil Finn.

Built around the breezy strumming of his acoustic guitar, the enjoyable songs on show here highlight Reid’s way with a memorable tune and turn of phrase. Thus, tracks like the languorous albeit charming “Love With You,” the slightly muted “Unstable,” the thoughtful “World’s That’s Made For Two,” the wistful “Two Left Feet” and the infectious “Any Given Day” will, given time and opportunity, worm their way into the consciousness of any self-respecting lover of quality pop music, and stay there for a long while. B+
Kevin Matthews www.powerofpop.com