Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

The Bandcamp page of Bristol-based singer/songwriter Colse Leung states that his latest release is "an attempt to give some voice and language to the grey areas of life, faith and everything in between." With that in mind and as per the title, this is a fairly downbeat affair but Colse wisely never becomes too maudlin in his musings and ensures that there is enough hope on offer amidst the gloom. Proceedings kick off in full band fashion with the minor key Americana of "God Unchanging" which speaks of the singer's belief that God is there no matter what we go through before the biblically-themed "Babel" - complete with surprise interplay between a trumpet and some distorted guitar - continues to press home the hope/torment dynamic. Those two fuller tracks aside, Colse strips things back to nothing much more than a solitary guitar for accompaniment with the occasional female harmony or accordion line thrown in for good measure and this gives the remainder of the release an overriding demo-like feel. Colse's vibrato-soaked vocals have a Neil Young quality to them and, whilst his wistful delivery can be a bit hard to decipher on occasion, his low key performance suits the feel of the album down to the ground. Colse has a penchant for inserting ambient interludes into the middle of some of his songs before coming back in with a completely different tune and, whilst this works well in the inventive 11 minute closer "Wide Open/Finally Found", it can cause numbers like the partially brilliant "Waves/Surroundings" to lose momentum. However, hats off to Colse for attempting to push the artistic boat out in order to offer up something different on this intriguing release.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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