Album Review: Dear... by Keaton Henson

Keaton Henson is a near-recluse who does no press and was for a long time too shy to even countenance playing live, before DJ Zane Lowe et al seized on his heartsore and heartbreaking single "You Don't Know How Lucky You Are". He recorded this startling debut album in his bedroom, using his cupboard to record percussion in, and never intended anyone to hear these songs. And it shows: as his tremulous whisper of a voice travels over deftly plucked, quietly rippling guitar lines, it feels like trespassing on a very small space, filled with enormous private sorrows.

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There is much that could be said about Keaton Henson, but ‘Dear’ is the debut release from the notoriously stage shy London-based singer / songwriter. After opening with a short instrumental piece consisting of chimes, sampled speech and birds tweeting, the brooding ‘You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are’ throws you headlong into the inner workings of a soul tortured by jealousy. As an ex-girlfriend finds herself in the arms of another, the resounding cry of ’Does his love make your head spin’ rings out with heartbreaking intensity.At times it feels like he’s opened up his journals and laid them out for you to discover, warts and all.

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A collection of small music and slow sounds, this great debut creeps up on the listener. Leonie Cooper 2012 Most musicians are shameless show-offs. What other kind of folk would be happy to bear their slipshod souls, open up about their obsessions and let the whole world know of their fondness for internal rhyming structures? Not to mention prancing about on stage in Topman’s finest and singing in public, in front of other human beings.

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