John Smith - Headlong

The Guardian 60

(Barp)

Dividing his time between session work for the likes of Joan Baez and Lisa Hannigan and a stop-start solo career means that Devon-based singer-songwriter John Smith has become far more widely respected by his peers than by the public at large. It’s hard to see that changing much with his fifth album. These 11 warm and gentle songs are exquisitely rendered – Smith’s restrained, economical guitar style means not a note is wasted – but whereas a memorable hook is never far away in the songs of fellow traveller David Gray, here they remain tantalisingly out of reach. It’s all pleasant enough, but falls some way short of being compelling.

Sun Jul 02 07:00:22 GMT 2017

The Guardian 60

(Barp)

John Smith broods off this album’s cover art like a bearded hipster newcomer, despite years of dedicated service to folk. A celebrated guitarist, he’s played on the Watersons’ Bright Phoebus tour, dedicated this record to his late mentor, Pentangle’s John Renbourn, and he’s about to play on Joan Baez’s new LP. Headlong, however, dwells far from that world. A simmering 10-track exercise in husky pop-Americana – think Mumford & Sons with more trouble creasing on its brow – it features tortured men who won’t “confess to Jesus because I never did a single thing to him” (Undone), fight “the wrong man in the wrong bar” (Joanna), and relax in perkier, David Gray-like compositions like Living in Disgrace (“it beats living alone”). It’s all lushly produced, accessible stuff, but one fewer men sinking into a downbeat persona, rather than a fuller personality, would be welcome.

Thu Jul 06 14:21:35 GMT 2017