LOYLE CARNER @ BELGRAVE ★★★★★
- Feb 11, 2017
- 2 min read
You have your whole life for your first album. Few have taken on this idea better than Loyle Carner. From the opening track 'Isle of Arran' you are part of Loyle's world, he invites you to be part of his journey with bars weaving together his friendships, family and losses. It's instantly relatable (not debatable), but totally unique in a way almost every artist aims for but few can achieve. Loyle Carner forces nothing, when others demand you to keep listening to the album with a heavy beat he just gets Tom Misch to lay down a slinky little riff in the third track, ‘Damselfly,’ and asks you to take a seat.
Loyle’s relationship with his mother is played out throughout the album, with short snippets from their conversations and the track ‘Florence,’ with a beautiful vocal provided by Kwes. It’s a song about his mum's wish for a daughter, only to be disappointed with two sons. It’s easy to see this simply as an album about loss, but it’s the moments of hope and levity that let you really appreciate how much Loyle Carner has achieved here. He has spoken about ‘finding his smile’ and it’s clear that his family has been a huge part of that but musically this is provided by Rebel Kleff and Tom Misch.
Half the albums tracks had already been released and, personally, it somewhat lessened the impact of the newer stuff to have it followed up with something you already know. Whenever you listen to a song you imprint a story of your own onto it and it can feel abrupt to realise that your story does not fit with Loyle Carner’s.
The only question is: Where next for Loyle Carner? This is a wonderful album but it’s set a high bar for a personal narrative in his work that can’t be rushed out. I’m willing to wait. There’s enough here to keep me coming back for a long time yet.
James brings you the weekly round up of gigs and music in Leeds every Saturday night at 8pm on the Leeds Student Radio. Keep up to date with his show: @liveandlocalleeds
Shoutout to Loyle Carner for his amazing performance of Yesterday's Gone at Nottingham Rough Trade, was a sick show and we got this amazing signed vinyl!
Choreographed beautifully and executed brilliantly, this debut album is a major Beefy inspiration - big up! - Beefy
Buy Yesterday's Gone
Listen to @manikmc
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