English musician Keaton Henson seems to be mining a particular area of music that's rather neglected. The road that R.E.M. took with Out of Time, probably not their most revered record but certainly one of their most successful ones.
The one where their straightened out the enigma, at least as far as you can when you deal so constantly in enigma as a communicative tool and you're frontman as Michael Stipe.
Out of Time is not my favourite R.E.M. record and never will be. In fact its the record I like least of their superlative opening run up to New Adventures, but they were a superlative act and everything they fd for almost fifteen years was blessed with quality.
I don't know Henson at all. He seems like an amiable fellow, judging by the portrait of him on the cover of the slightly oddly named House Party. He looks not unlike a Home Counties Jesus, in his nicely managed beard and pink suit. It's the first record of his I've heard, and its his sixth in all. It won't make me want to explore his work further it's not the most exciting record, I'd give it a seven, but I admire the way it focuses consistently on the full side of the glass and its lyrics and melody are gently seductive..
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