Warp Records are a different beast of late, what with the likes of !!!, Vincent Gallo and generally an expanding roster that refreshingly contradicts its back catalogue. Nick Talbot’s Gravenhurst furthers this abandoning of Warp’s electronic past, focusing purely on traditional song writing using voice and acoustic instrumentation.
A very lazy reference point would be the penultimate statesman of sadness Nick Drake, yet it is plainly obvious that there is some heavy emulation here of Drakian wistfulness and melancholy, however in this case it seems a little to forced and strained in execution. Nick Drake perfected the art of shaping sad songs that were also full of hope and promise, and didn’t choose to wallow to the point of self-indulgent no return.
Talbot has a voice that sometimes shines with the aural crutches of a well written and structured song, however more often than not falls a little flat in delivery on Flashlight Seasons. His harmony work seems rushed and unfocused, possibly a result of recording the entire album in the confines of his own home studio with no real external influence. Talbot also as it happens sounds remarkable like baldie UK popster Sice of the The Boo Radleys.
“I Turn My Face to the Forest Floor,” “The Diver,” and “East of the City” (itself being a Nick Drake lyric) are all thick with happy-sad atmosphere and dark lyrical flair, yet somehow fall short of developing melodically and structurally beyond densely finely tuned atmospherics. Perhaps this is the most appropriate criticism of the entire album, with songs often relying heavily on a mesh of multitracked parts that drench the arrangements unnecessarily.
“The Ice Tree” melds all the promise of the remainder of the album, and shows that Talbot’s Gravenhurst has the potential to grow into something that is obviously only half told here.
Flashlight Seasons is out now on Warp Records.
