After the acclaimed Mercury Prize-winning 2021 debut Collapsed in Sunbeams, the much anticipated follow-up by the now LA-based British artist is filled with poetic self-reflection, intimate, intelligent, gentle pop-soul, but at times falls short of that debut’s initial impact, edge and melodic power. Perhaps the more laid-back, sun-filled California environment, a longer process and multiple high-profile producers Paul Epworth, Ariel Rechtshaid and others has had a softening effect on an album described as being about “mid-20s anxiety, the substance abuse of friends, the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating P.T.S.D. and grief and self-sabotage and joy”. The title is apparently taken from line in the 2019 film The Souvenir, rather than the band Soft Machine, or the William S Burroughs novel. Musically emotions are tenderly understated, low-key self-examining, R&B-ish and wistful, but there several tracks grow with appeal on a few listens, such as Pegasus (with Phoebe Bridgers), Weightless, I’m Sorry, Room (red wings), Impurities, Devotion, Dog Rose and Puppy. Smooth, soulful, insightfully honest, but not soaring. Out on Transgressive.
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