Kindly Now

The frail folkie is still full of pain and anxiety. Which is good news for the rest of us. After 2015’s electronic Behaving project, the Londoner returns to gorgeous, emotionally raw confessionals. He siphons stinging regret into softly tumbling piano and brittle vocals on “Old Lovers in Dressing Rooms”, while strings drift through “Good Lust“ like painful memories. He avoids unsparing bleakness with crucial shifts in tone though: “Alright”’s teariness resolves into optimism, and “Comfortable Love” even rocks enough to suggest Jeff Buckley.