By far the most impressive thing about this album, without a shadow of a doubt, is its coherence. The careful structure of the record, depth of emotion communicated with such deliberate moderation, the cohesion of the sound that runs right thoughout the album makes it fanatastic as a whole.
By far the most impressive thing about this album, without a shadow of a doubt, is its coherence. The careful structure of the record, depth of emotion communicated with such deliberate moderation, the cohesion of the sound that runs right thoughout the album makes it fanatastic as a whole.
From time to time an album comes along that strikes you as something special: in the case of Balance by Will Samson, it is simply because it is so unexpectedly emotive. The album has humble roots – one guy with a guitar, along with some help from old recording equipment and a good friend – but it definitely exceeds the atmospheric intensity reached by the pop world’s current favourite DIY “guy with a guitar”, Bon Iver. It might be tempting to think of Samson a kind of Justin Vernon without the commercial appeal (and attached label of yummy-mummy fave), and associated errotic blogs http://boniverotica.tumblr.com/. But Balance heads for an even more ethereal sound, exploiting the intimacy of home recording: tape crackles, white noise and hushed vocals, enveloping all eight tracks on the album in a kind of delicate gossamer gauze.
Samson make his furthest foray into the abstract and atmospheric on Hunting Shadows, which divides the album in two, an ambient interlude that blends bird songs, footsteps, jangling keys and otherworldly synth drones, creating a slightly sinister fragility à la Brian Eno. Cathedrales begins as far more conventional finger-picking guitar number, that slowly swells into a wave of distorted guitar. The lyricless Music for Autumn is also delicately beautiful and effortlessly evocative, showing that Samson need not rely on his delicate crooning to communicate all of that bittersweet emotion.
The strange thing is that highlighting important individual tracks on the album seems something of a futile exercise. By far the most impressive thing about this album, without a shadow of a doubt, is its coherence. The careful structure of the record, depth of emotion communicated with such deliberate moderation, the cohesion of the sound that runs right thoughout the album makes it fanatastic as a whole. Samson beats The XX for his ability to convey so much using such softly minimalist songwriting which holds the album together; each track on Balance runs seamlessly into the next, in a single delicately flowing soundscape. Balance is a thing of sheer aesthetic pleasure.