release date: Apr. 14, 2014
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,26]
producer: Ewan Pearson
label: Unmade Road - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Hendra" - 2. "Forget" (live) - 3. "Spring" (4 / 5) - 6. "The Gun" - 8. "The Levels" (live) - 10. "The Heart Is a Mirror"
2nd solo studio album by Ben Watt released on his own label Unmade Road. Ben usually releases new material as part of Everything but the Girl together with his wife Tracey Thorn, and this is his only solo album in more than 30 years following his solo debut North Marine Drive (1983). The album comes out more or less simultaneously with his autobiography "Patient" - the story of how he was struck by a rare but serious decease, which had him hospitalised for a long period of time in the early 90s - and appears to be named after his recently deceased older sister's cottage, which bore the name, meaning 'home' in old Cornish. So, that also makes the album a hommage to his sister.
The music is like a return to the initial style of EBTG, which means sophisti-pop, jangle pop, and jazz pop. Add to that an element of singer / songwriter, which makes me think of Aztec Camera / Roddy Frame or Prefab Sprout. This is primarily acoustic driven music apart from collaboration artist Bernard Butler's background and laid-back electric jazz guitar. It's nice, quiet, and pretty neat - I like it, it's good. It doesn't stir up anything or anyone, and the music sounds like fine background noise at the hip cafe featuring a mature audience chatting quietly while sipping the latte before returning homeward. The single "Spring" is the strongest highlight of the album.
