Product Description Tom Goss breathes, speaks and aches like never before on Back To Love; Washington DC Based Singer-Songwriter Builds on Success of 2008 s Rise Washington DC Every singer-songwriter uses life experiences to help shape their own musical style and direction. For Washington DC based Tom Goss, that method has been taken to another level on his latest album, Back To Love. Produced by Mike Ofca, Back To Love is a collection of edgy alt/pop songs that are literally about love not always romantic love, but the many faces of love. He has built on the success of his first national tour with as well as the production and release of his first video, which was featured nationally and eventually rose to number 2 on MTV LOGOs The Click List. I wanted to create something that was instantly accessible, says Goss. Something that would touch a wide audience, and something that was fast and clean but also carried a concrete message. And he teamed up with Ofca, because, as he says, I love what he can do. He took the songs and added depth and edge -- layers of guitars, monster drums, and a real respect for each individual song at its core. As for those songs, the months Goss spent on the road fueled his songwriting into something more personal and profound, influenced by some of his favorite artists, including Ben Folds, David Gray, Dave Matthews, Sufjan Stevens, Paolo Nutini and The Beatles. In addition, the songs are a way that Goss has opened up about his own romantic love. As a gay man, he wanted to deliver a message about societal and religious perceptions of what love means to a gay person, as well as his family s love and failed love, including the divorce of his parents. Goss also learned a lot from his recently deceased grandfather, whom he says loved his grandmother more than I have ever seen anyone love. He adds that Back To Love breathes speaks, and aches like nothing I have ever done before. Goss, who grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, moved to DC in 2004 to enter Catholic seminary in hopes of becoming a priest. After that didn t go as planned, Goss later found himself through his charity work and through his partner, and began to make music more of a full-time ambition. His debut, album, Naked Without, was released in 2006 and was followed by Rise in January 2008. Goss plans to hit the road in support of Back To Love, delivering the message of his new album to a wide range of listeners. I want people to listen to Back To Love and leave with a sense of hope and love greater than before, says Goss. I want to start conversations about love and loss, anger and forgiveness, hope and fear, but most importantly integration, of self and of each other. And at the same time, I want to deliver the best batch of songs that I possibly could. Review Review by William Ruhlmann On one level, Back to Love, Tom Goss' third album, is, as its title suggests, a collection of love songs feelingly sung and set to open-structured folk/rock arrangements. But it is clear from the urgency with which Goss sings and the terms in which he sets his observations that there is more at stake than romance. Goss, who moved from Kenosha, WI, to Washington, D.C. to attend a Catholic seminary and become a priest, but who ended up instead as an openly gay singer/songwriter, remains concerned with the ways in which his affections touch on larger issues. He is adamant about permanence and fidelity, singing, "You're my only lover" in "Lover" and pledging to stay "Till the End," as another song title puts it. But, he asks in "Break Away," "What is love if not the search for truth?" And truth, particularly in a spiritual sense, is clearly an ongoing interest for a man who may have veered away from a formal religious vocation, but still views the world in the moral terms he embraced in his youth; he just defines them differently now. In a musical context, this results in some impassioned performances of songs that aim higher and strike deeper than your average batch of romantic ditties. --AllMusicTom Goss Back to Love... By Al Kaufman As You Tube sensation Susan Boyle demonstrated, you can't judge a singer by his or her looks. On the cover of Back to Love...Tom Goss looks like a slight, New Agey guy with a reed-like voice. What he actually is, is a pop tunesmith with gritty, somewhat nasally vocals that resemble a sharper Dave Matthews. Goss is also known as a gay songwriter. Yes, he is gay, but so (reportedly) is Joan Jett, so was Freddie Mercury. They wrote songs that everyone could relate to, and so does Goss. Because of his video, depicting both straight and gay couples in bed, Goss Til the End has become a sort of gay anthem in fighting for the rights of gay marriage. The song itself, however, is far more subtle. Over some pretty guitar picking, Goss describes little moments of sleeping in late and noticing a smile. He keeps the pedantics to a minimum. It is easily a song and straight couple would choose as a first dance at their wedding. The whole CD is about love, both physical and platonic, and its highs and lows. And Goss studies the most cliched sentiment in music with a keen ear and eye, making it sound fresh. Writing a love song is easy. Writing a good one is hard. Tom Goss writes good love songs, for everybody. --Atlanta Music GuideLocal singer song-writer Tom Goss has a solid effort here with the extremely personal album, Back To Love; His messages are on love, life, death, society, family and religion. The album, a follow up to last years Rise; is filled with alt/pop catchiness. Check out the harmonies on Back To Arkansas; the Gin-Blossom tinged rocker Down the Mountainside, the piano-based ballad Sometimes We Fall, and the simple and beautiful Lover. Overall, Back To Love is a heartfelt winner. Album drops April 7. --OnTap Magazine
