With downtempo, melodic and deep felt emotion coursing through it, this is an accomplished Late Night Tales debut that showcases music that, put simply, makes the soul feel good.
‘Goldstar’ has all the ingredients needed to propel the six-piece outfit into the mainstream, whether they like it or not. Thrillingly weird and wonderful.
Blake’s lyrics often circle ideas rather than landing on them, leaving some songs feeling like emotional sketches. But that ambiguity is part of the album’s appeal. These songs feel lived-in and unresolved, the way real relationships often are.
‘Only You Left’ is another fine record from the Manchester-based trio. It is worth the four-year wait, showing their evolution as a group in that time, building on existing sounds and incorporating an array of different genres while still feeling familiar.
Its deliberate rough edges give the album an intimate and resonant glimpse into Mackenzie-Barrow’s solo vision, and in trusting first takes and fragile moments, he reveals a voice that is not retreating from the noise but refining itself within it.
The electronic palette moves him in a fresh direction, and although some of the mid-section does congeal into one, the album’s overall arc is a successful embrace of personal, and above all sensual, evolution.
