Tom Bruins - Waiting for the Rain (2025) Hi Res

It's not often these days that a concept album is made. And certainly not one presented as a song cycle. It happened quite regularly in the late sixties and seventies, the most famous example being the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson's Smile, but after that, it increasingly fell out of favor. Love it or hate it, there's very little air between them. Fans completely lose themselves in the story and the adventurous musical landscapes, disconnecting for a while. Haters find it pretentious or noble kitsch that gives them the creeps. Despite this, debuting Dutch singer-songwriter Tom Bruins dared to release a song cycle.

The story he wants to share with us is about growing up. He tells it from the perspective of a toddler, a schoolchild, a teenager, and an adolescent. The emphasis is on human fixation on the absurdities of everyday life and the often incomprehensible way in which people communicate with each other. Neatly divided into an A- and a B-side, because he wrote it with vinyl firmly in mind. With the album Smile clearly in mind, Bruins entered the studio in Amsterdam, with Frans Hagenaars and Yorick van Norden at the controls, to bring his initial concept to life. And so we glide into the story with the sounds of a harmonium that seem to search for the right note. With the title track, "Waiting For The Rain," Tom has written a catchy number, where the instrumentation is already somewhat expanded. In the following, "Schoolyard Suite," the Brain Wilson trump card is drawn for the first time. Choruses and transitions we recognize from the Beach Boy then transition into what we recognize as Genesis under Peter Gabriel.

That can be a bit tricky when listening to this album, which always has something to do with the aforementioned examples. But fortunately, there are still musicians who don't let that deter them from following their dreams. Even though you can clearly hear where Abraham gets his inspiration, what stands out is the joy. Take, for example, "Birthday, Pt. 2," sung so ingeniously that you'll long for an explanation from your math teacher. It moves so ingeniously from left to right and from top to bottom that, besides rolling your eyes, you can't help but smile. "Mr. Charles" is a baroque pop song primarily supported by what's called pizzicato, or plucking the strings with your fingers instead of the bowing that's customary on a stringed instrument.

Tom has saved the best for last. The beautifully arranged "Oh Bundle" features those wonderfully melancholic, languid strings that draw you into the song. The album closer, "An Ordinary Life," revolves entirely around that one moment that so many boys of that age cherish. A lot of love has clearly gone into this project. Most of the musicians probably didn't consciously experience the sixties and seventies, but delved into their parents' or siblings' record collections. With the harmonium as the main instrument and real strings, Bruins manages to convey that nostalgic feeling to us.