While Keaton Henson first reached these ears via a link from SoKo last summer, it seems like everyone I know has been suggesting his stuff since. It just wouldn’t click, though. There was something too precious, too sweet, and almost too heartfelt about these hushed folk remedies. “Can someone’s broken heart really be held this close to the surface?” I wondered. (Questions like that occur a lot around here, by the way.)
But then our friends at Drowned in Sound debuted the LP yesterday — finally, after a slew of videos have been previewing the set on YouTube for years. “sweetheart, i am so sorry that they can hear these songs,” Henson wrote in a brilliantly understated note to readers (or one reader, his ex, in particular). “ever yours, Keaton.” And with that, my doubt was vanquished, the authenticity behind his work felt real, it clicked, and so did I. You can do so, too, thataway.
Meanwhile, here’s a personal favorite video clip of the many making the rounds:
“Sarah Minor”