Like an iron fist in a velvet glove, acoustic troubadour Peter Kelly has wrapped powerful lyrical sentiment inside a delicate musical framework for this stripped-back-to-basics album.
And what an album it is, with whispered vocals, plaintive harmonies and nimble fretwork that could give Bon Iver or Elvis Perkins a serious run for their money.
Armed with just a guitar and a tambourine, his introspective lyrics veer from pugnacious to frank self-deprecation, and singing of how ‘a sleeping king will lose his crown’ on ‘Evil Air’, it’s a record proving that its creator can stake his own worthy claim at joining acoustic royalty.