The Critics' Verdict

On "This Hour"

"I had never heard of Clint Bradley before I got this release. According to the information supplied he comes from the New Forest area and is a singer / songwriter who has worked extensively here and in America ... but is he country? Yes and no, but one thing is certain Clint is not only a quality singer / songwriter but also an equally good musician and producer.

From the opening "Guilty Heart" ballad as soon as I heard the instrumental work and Clint's voice I knew this was going to be My Album Of The Month ... incidentally The Blockheads, of Ian Dury fame, are the musicians used.

Barbed Wire Round The Meadow moves up-tempo and has very british lyrics set to a kind of "The Devil Went To Georgia" feel. It's back to ballads again for "Love Is To Blame" and "When Will I Learn" and these allow Bradley to use the full range of his singing voice and prove he is a first class vocalist ... I think both songs are very commercial and should be aimed at MOR radio shows.

I understand that these 11 songs are just a fraction of a very large repertoire ... this is definitely one artist I want to see live and hear more of."

Ian McQueen
Country Music News & Routes - July 1997

"The production enhances the romantic, longing mood of Alright Mary, as Bradley turns in a fine vocal performance. Forever Forever is a slowly building dramatic song that builds to a spine tingling climax, while Purple Land begins with the hush of a delicate guitar and slowly lifts to a country-rock roar.

His lyrics are sensitive enough to please and directed in such a way that they aren't depressing, touching without hurting, which is instrumental for the creation of the moods in his writing. Bradley's voice is inviting and accessible, melding with the sophisticated pop melodies and never resorting to dramatics that could overpower the well-stated messages in the lyrics.

Adrian Cooke

"The debut-album of Clint[on] Bradley introduces the Englishman as a blend of Roy Orbison and Chris Isaak with plenty of convincing songs.

It is one of the basics in rock-music, that a formerly successful style or sound will come back periodically. This happens presently with Britpop, which is nothing else but a modernized style of beat-music, and also with trance, which recycles the electronic music of the '70s. But only very seldom a singer appears like a rebirth of another one - moreover if he writes songs in the same quality of the original. That is exactly what Clint Bradley proves with his debut This Hour on which he sounds like a young Roy Orbison. The songs, the voice and the entire musical surrounding fit exactly into that scheme, and more than that he wrote songs R.O. would have been proud of.

Considering that this whole thing happens in the 90s, it might seem to be anachronistical. On the other hand, the Big O himself celebrated a great comeback shortly before the passed away and Chris Isaak boosted the charts in the 90s with a slightly modified sound. So it's the quality which counts, and in this respect Clint Bradley is fantastic. Not only because he wrote the songs all by himself, but because he created such a big variety to avoid the image of a simple copy. His love hurts-sound actually attracts the listener, but there are also up-tempo tracks he arranged perfectly. In addition to that he and his co-producer Chris Bostock preferred arrangements with a guitar-based band referring to the rock'n'roll-era. This not only features the voice of Bradley, it simply demands for it."

Rough Translation of Clint Bradley "Record Of The Month" in Oldie-Markt, Germany's monthly magazine for record collectors:

"The most convincing epigone since long: Clint Bradley names as musical influences Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Roy Orbison, but also Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, Christy Moore and Shane McGowen. Sounds dangerous yet works. Those eleven songs on his debut album This Hour (ARIS) do not deny their prototypes; Bradley, introducing himself as an English Country-boy, sings like a rebirth of Roy Orbison; Marty Robbins meets Billy Bragg; Country and Folk merge into an ideal combination. Also surprising: the Blockheads as side-band, once working with Ian Dury.

From "Rolling Stone" (Germany)
July, 1997 p.87