ANOTHER lonesome singer-songwriter then, but Merton-born Johns is a talent. The man who has produced albums by the likes of Kings of Leon, Tom Jones, Kaiser Chiefs and the Vaccines, has a go himself, and it’s a paprika-hot effort.
There are palpable influences at play – a Nick Cave-type drawl on the stirring Rally, a Jack White guitar riff right from the White Stripes’ Icky Thump era on Morning Blues, a Steve Nieve keyboard frill on the pumped-up Don’t Reach Too Far and a swish George Harrison-esque guitar break to caress the finale to Eden.
But to each and the remaining six songs, Johns brings his own unalloyed and inventive identity. And on an album that is never wan or patchy, or afflicted by filler, there is killer track The Turning, a sparsely arranged paean to mortality driven by what seems irregularly sighing bellows. A startling breath-snatcher.
• Ethan Johns will play the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on February 19.
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