The year 2014 was quite an exciting one for music. On the Top 40 front, we had a handful of inescapable earworms, like Pharrell Williams' Happy, Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX's Fancy and Taylor Swift's Shake It Off. Elsewhere, new talents like FKA twigs and Arca came out with their cutting-edge debut albums (LP1 and Xen, respectively). Standing among those high profile releases was Total Strife Forever, the debut record by English musician William Doyle, who at the time went by the moniker East India Youth.
Preceded by the four-track EP Hostel, the album caught everyone by surprise with soundscapes that defied conventional pop structures. Doyle's subtle nod to electronic subgenres like ambient and techno, along with his flair for classical and orchestral undertones, were redolent of the likes of grandmasters Brian Eno and Tim Hecker. Given the brilliance of his work, it came as no surprise that Total Strife Forever went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize that year.
The East India Youth project proved to be relatively short-lived, coming to an abrupt end in 2016. But Doyle continues to make and release music, now under his real name. His latest collection, Your Wilderness Revisited (following on from last year's Bandcamp releases Millersdale and Near Future Residence) has been a long time coming. "This album has been rattling inside of me for over 10 years now," he explains in the liner notes. And, despite having been recorded "in bedrooms in York, Brighton, London, and a kitchen in Chandler's Ford", the LP brims with polished, complex arrangements and lyrics dedicated to the suburb where he spent his formative years.
"There is no banality within your vicinity," he asserts on Nobody Else Will Tell You, accompanied by some bright saxophone from London-based jazz musician Laura Misch. He drives home the message further on An Orchestral Depth, with a sampled quote from celebrated British TV broadcaster Jonathan Meades: "Suburban avenues and riverbanks, backstreets and woods [are] the best free show on Earth." Other standouts include Continuum and Design Guide, which contains a spoken passage of British housing design guides, as read by Brian Eno.
The verdict: Expansive and emotionally evocative, Your Wilderness Revisited glistens with an idealised sense of place and a grandiose production to match.
Quotable lyrics: "I had determined/ The forest was a border, infinite/ But now I feel my place is wider because of it/ And in the nearer thickets of paths and avenues/ There was so much to bend with, to break and magnify" (Nobody Else Will Tell You).
Listen to this: Nobody Else Will Tell You, Design Guide, Continuum, Thousands Of Hours Of Birds.
THE PLAYLIST
Tame Impala / It Might Be Time
"It might be time to face it/ It ain't as fun as it used to be, no/ You're goin' under/ You ain't as young as you used to be," Kevin Parker sings unceremoniously on It Might Be Time, the latest cut from Tame Impala's upcoming fourth studio LP The Slow Rush. This recurring theme of anxiety has been central to Parker's songwriting since 2010s breakthrough single Solitude Is Bliss, and seems to only have intensified as time has gone by. "You ain't as cool as you used to be, no/ You won't recover/ You ain't as young as you used to be," he rues the disconcerting prospect of losing his mojo against booming drums and odd sirens. As far as the production goes, strong 70s prog-rock and washed-out synths reign supreme, making it a seamless continuation of the previously shared Borderline.
Sam Smith / I Feel Love
Following their first collaboration some seven years ago, Sam Smith reunites with Disclosure's Guy Lawrence for a rework of Donna Summer's 1977 disco anthem I Feel Love. Recorded and released as part of Target's upcoming Christmas charity campaign, the faithful cover finds the crooner channelling his inner diva with the kind of falsetto that would make Ms Summer proud, not to mention giving the listener a satisfying head rush in the process. I Feel Love marks Smith's third offering so far this year following How Do You Sleep? and the Normani-featured Dancing With A Stranger.
Dan Deacon / Sat By A Tree
Dan Deacon is no stranger to dabbling in the subject of death and rebirth. One of the most outstanding tracks of his career, When I Was Done Dying, tackles the topic head-on with lines like: "When I was done dying my conscience regained/ So I began my struggle a nothingness strained." Now with Sat By A Tree, the lead single off his forthcoming record Mystic Familiar, the Maryland singer-songwriter turns his attention towards the sublime decomposition process of our physical body. "It's a short life/ And sadly unrehearsed," he begins his stream of consciousness, touching some cold hard truth about life after death. "If when I die, if you think of me, think of my best first/ But it is out of my control what this world wants there to be told of me in time."
Nicolas Godin / The Border
Nicolas Godin, one-half of the iconic French electronic duo Air, follows up last year's Au Service De La France soundtrack with The Border, hinting at the long-anticipated sophomore solo album. The mid-tempo track, inspired by German architect Mies van der Rohe and his 1929 Barcelona Pavilion project, rides on a windswept soundscape and distorted vocals repeating haunting directives: "Take me to the border/ Meet me by the sea." It's everything we love about Air's music, with a dash of Daft Punk to boot.
Panic! At The Disco / Into The Unknown
Before Frozen 2 opens next week, we're treated to its first official soundtrack single Into the Unknownsupplied by US pop-rockers Panic! At The Disco. "I'm sorry, secret siren, but I'm blocking out your calls/ I've had my adventure, I don't need something new/ I'm afraid of what I'm risking if I follow you," frontman Brendon Urie croons over the symphonic rock production, his falsetto effortlessly matching that of actress Idina Menzel who voices main character Elsa and sings the original in the movie. Apart from Into The Unknown, the soundtrack also features contributions from Kacey Musgraves, Aurora and Weezer.
