Will Varley - Kingsdown Sundown
I've seen Will Varley several times and have his records. I admire his observational songwriting, the humour, and also the way he tackles political themes in a non-preachy way, always smashing the right targets. Therefore my first listen to Kingsdown Sundown was something of a surprise, this being an altogether more sombre Will Varley. He sounds wounded and weary, the album having a running theme of sadness and melancholy, eloquently and poetically expressed throughout but still hitting out occasionally as in We Want Our Planet Back.
There isn't much in the way of the humour we've become used to, indeed it wouldn't fit with the themes of an increasingly insane, divided, broken world getting ever more tragic whilst personal life also collapses as there is evident loss here. Back to Hell is midway between Back to Black and Dance Me to the End of Love in mood. One can imagine his feeling of the world falling apart mirroring his own.
This is his most accomplished work so far; his cathartic Blood on the Tracks. The way he has soundtracked this troubled year with his own pain makes this already feel like a masterpiece. Sad, angry and hurting but always beautiful. One of the year's best new records.
10/10
