Will Stratton - The Changing Wilderness

 

This is American singer-songwriter Will Stratton's seventh album.  It's a bit of a gem.  It has a kind of retro feel, difficult to escape the ghost of Nick Drake that hangs over it, though it also echoes modern day guitarists such as Steve Gunn and especially James Elkington.

The opener Tokens features some absolutely exquisite guitar playing, and sets the tone.  Some of it is quite poppy, Black Hole has a radio-friendly (if such a thing still exists) beat to it, similarly the brooding Infertile Air.  The Rain has an almost impossibly pretty guitar pattern, probably the lushest thing on the whole album and the guitars on Fate's Ghost tumble gloriously as if they dropped out of Nick Drake's Bryter Layter.

The album has a consistent tone throughout, late into the album, the brief Venus is simple and resonant.  All in all, pretty fine stuff