Molloy Woodcraft 

Hendra review – Ben Watt’s first solo album in 30 years

There's an affecting honesty to these unassuming songs about life, loss and the like, writes Molloy Woodcraft
  
  


Ben Watt's second solo album (the first since 1983's North Marine Drive) sees him team up with ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler and Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson for 10 unassuming songs about life, loss, grief and the like. There's an unmannered honesty to Watt's singing and lyrics, and numbers such as the opener, Hendra, and the bucolic The Levels – which features a turn from David Gilmour on slide guitar and charts the banal details of folding up a business, a life – are very affecting. John Martyn-esque tracks like Golden Ratio (lovely guitar from Butler here) are balanced by the riffing, declamatory Nathaniel. Nice work.

 

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