MARIOS POLITIS - This is my Story

MARIOS POLITIS

Album: This is my Story

Genre: Rock / Blues

Release Date: November 10th 2020

Country: Greece

Label: Self-Released

Band Links: BANDCAMP / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK

I have to admit that a musical description ”alternative rock/pop” isn’t a thing that usually fills me with huge excitement, but when I came across Greek artist MARIOS POLITIS a while ago, something in the cover artwork appealed to me: It’s an amazing painting of the album’s hero and made me curious about what he has to tell on this debut. “This is my Story” (released November 10th, 2020) isn’t a concept album in the common sense, but each song describes more or less important periods of his life, with a spectrum from the lack of concern of the masses, travelling and beautiful memories, but also sad ones about loss, depression and alcoholism.

As the lyrics are mainly thoughtful, the slow and mid-tempo rhythmic fits well. Nevertheless, the music has a certain energy, that somehow reminds me of DAYS OF THE NEW (for those who still remember this band from the 90s). The instrumentation is a mix of acoustic and electric guitar, the bass comes up with a full sound. Some songs also get support by cello and piano, which enhance the melancholy that can be felt within the album. What draws me in every time is MARIOS’ strong voice with its warm tone. The melodies can easily stick in your head for a while (in a positive way), like “How Can I”, which is also one of my favorites because of the great dynamic. Other highlights for me are the groovy "Days" and "Stay" (watch the accompanying video above).

While “Everybody Knows About Me Except Me” opens with a pretty cool bass line, “Old Friend” is a slow blues with lots of feeling in it. Sometimes, things calm down too much for me, like during "Not Again", but you can also find brighter songs: “London” and “Window” invite the listener to dream away for a moment.

"This is my Story" is a very personal album, and I like MARIOS POLITIS' way of melodic and atmospheric story-telling. As he leans in different directions musically by alternating between rock, blues and folk, each song gets its own expression depending on the background stories. Song-writing, instrumentation and the balanced mixing support that as well and make this debut an amazing listen.

Written by Katha