On his debut album ‘Shadow Work’, singer songwriter Sam Varga made the juxtaposition of angst ridden, emo-centric lyrics and radio friendly melodies appear very natural. Despite the fact the record took all of about four seconds for him to confront his audience with the revelation that he felt like he was “rotting from the inside out” and another couple before dropping an f-bomb for extra angst, the album remained very accessible. At its best, tunes like ‘Stories We Tell’ and ‘Apocalypse’ played like the natural successor to the Ryan Adams best-selling ‘Gold’; ‘Up Down’ took the poppy heart of Simple Plan’s more commercial work and transplanted it into more of a singer songwriter sphere, while the chorus of the brilliant ‘Live Up To It’ gave a confident nod to the more contemporary pop rock of Bleachers. All the while, Varga still managed to sound like his own man – a songwriter with an occasionally sharp tongue, but in possession of an even sharper ear for a great melody.

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