Ben Howard is back and, by the sounds of it, he’s back with some sort of vengeance. Oriented towards a much darker sound, The Burgh Island EP sounds as though the warm and cuddly Ben we’re used to has gone into hibernation, only to be replaced by his unsweetened winter counterpart. His rendition of ‘The Burren’, in session for Xfm, certainly captures this new misty atmosphere.
Don’t worry; all of the usual components of the Ben Howard experience are still there. His combination of a croaky southern voice and slick finger-picking remains as impressive as ever, it has simply been injected with a nostalgic bitterness we could only catch glimpses of in Every Kingdom, specifically in tracks ‘Black Flies’ and ‘Empty Corridors’.
‘The Burren’ represents the style that Ben has kept hidden in the shadows until now, a spectacular mutation of his former self. Whilst it may not be what we fans were expecting, The Burgh Island EP and a compelling live performance of ‘The Burren’ certainly give us a whole lot to get excited about in 2013.
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By Joe Doherty
Dance Yrself Clean
