Indeed, throughout Life Is People Fay’s voice, enriched by time, suggests that it has come through much yet never descends into polemic.
Aimed equally at the head and the heart, and hitting a near-bull’s eye in both categories.
On Allelujah!… we get a Godspeed reinvigorated, imbued with their best spirit, the spirit of the rag-tag collective, not equipped (or willing) to meet on the terms of their oppressors, but determined to persist nonetheless.
Sonic exploration is the name of the game on this album, making it a real treat with headphones.
There’s more than enough here to interest the brain, the feet, and most things in between.
Love This Giant may have started life as a one-off experiment, but we can only hope that it is one that the two main protaganists choose to develop further in the future.
It’s to Van Etten’s credit that with Tramp she navigates the narrow corridor between the banal and the cliché-ridden; producing something worth listening to on the well-worn subject of falling in and out of love.
Every song breathes like an individual fragment of Ocean’s personality and past, coaxed and caressed into life by his stunning voice and considered songwriting.
Is I Know What Love Isn’t Jens Lekman’s great masterwork, his Blood on the Tracks? On the evidence of how far he’s progressed across three records, there’s an intelligent, ever-developing artist who will continue to learn, improve and adapt so I’d be prepared to hold out for what comes next before making such a call.
Devotion is such a strong début from such a promising talent that offers qualities and sounds we all forgot we liked.