Jack Peñate - After You

The Guardian 60

(XL Recordings)
Back after 10 years, Peñate’s tuneful new songs are a literate, spiritual exploration of the soul, but it’s undoubtedly a bit beige

Jack Peñate’s back, and this time it’s spiritual. Part of his decade away from music was spent – consults notes – indulging in mind-expanding ritual, looking to mysticism and mythology for answers, and reading Hesse, Rilke and Huxley. The suspicion that he’s gone full ayahuasca holiday is further heightened by the news that the album’s closer, Swept to the Sky, was written “because there was a sound that reminded me of a feeling I had being in the jungle while in Peru”. Shall we consult the lyrics to see what feeling that might have been? “Then a mist from the lovers of sin / Slowly crept to my skull through my skin / And my body was carried up high / And I felt myself swept to the sky.” No more questions, your honour.

The Guardian 60

(XL)

Jack Peñate’s 2007 debut, Matinée, with its scrappy, jangly indie guitar pop, was a product of its time. Its follow-up, 2009’s Everything Is New, recalibrated the Londoner’s profile to that of a more serious, refined dance-pop artist. Following that record’s acclaim, Peñate took a step back from the limelight, and has spent the past decade learning how to produce music himself.

Indeed, his return on After You showcases Peñate’s own high-end production values (with some help from Paul Epworth, Inflo and Alex Epton). This isn’t a release that bows to zeitgeisty sounds, but instead aims, in somewhat hit-and miss-fashion, at timeless songwriting. The sprawling cosmic delicacy of Loaded Gun feels reminiscent of Bowie; the Beatles are referenced at their most spiritual via slightly eye-roll-inducing sitar on the otherwise sweet Cipralex.